I'm thinking about buying a new EP, but I'm not sure which one. I am deciding between OFB, Pets, and Bon Voyage. The advantages as I see them are

OFB: elevators
Pets: pets are cute!
BV: beach lots

Can people comment on these factors? Specifically, how are beach lots special? They seem intruiging, but I'm not sure if they're worth the extra money.

Beach Lots are ok. The big difference is you can swim in the ocean part of the lot. I have Bon Voyage and it is okay. I would go with OFB

I think it depends on what you enjoy most. Personally, of the 3 you listed, Pets is my favorite. I find OFB difficult to manage and kind of pointless....I haven't had much fun with the business aspect so far (maybe I need to get out the game guide and figure it out) and BV is okay, but I haven't found it to add that much to my game. Pets is a different story, but IRL I'm an animal lover and my life would be very empty without my pets. You can create your own custom pet and the interactions are so cool. And Pets gives you the ability to merge households...you can just move a family from your family bin in with an existing family (space permitting of course!). That's how many of my Sim families have gotten their pets...I went on a pet CAS binge and every family in my game has a pet of some kind .

I have all the EPs, but mine will be a mixture of EPs and SPs, because I can't decide a pure top five for each series.

1. Open for Business — It might be useless and/or impractical for large families and hardcore "roleplayers"/"filmers", but my Sims have never been any of those things (nuclear family: mother, father, and a couple kids). It's great that we can finally set up our own businesses (I don't think this was an option in TS1?). Plus, the premade and offered (on Sims fansites) lots for home businesses are really pretty. I also find building a business one of the best parts of the game, for some reason (maybe it's all the shiny new stuff that'll cash in for Simoleons in return)!

2. Mansion & Garden — Mostly for the staircases, but it's just a really nice pack overall. It's great for the CC builders, I bet they were like, "YES!" when it came out. Those who still diss on it claiming we could download half the stuff off fansites, well... look at the other SPs (they're even worse).

3. Pets — If it were Amazon or another rating site, I'd put it on the roster at three stars. Not horrible, but not fabulous, either. I hate how the pets love to meet (or fight with) spooky neighboring pets at nighttime, while the whole house sleeps. I hate how they chew on everything and dig up nasty holes in my lawn (at least we can dig for treasure in it)? But they sure do keep the Sim children happy and entertained, and my Sims always, always, always want one. Plus, I thought it was very nice of them to supply us their bedding, toys, etc. all in one pack instead of ripping us off like they usually do.

4. Kitchen & Bath — In my opinion, this is the WORST SP the Maxis gods put out. It's virtually useless. You know, I've had it for a couple months now, and I still can't tell what originally came with the game and other SPs/EPs from this one. The highest environment giving shower is basically a dark recolor of the Coloratura stall that was introduced with the base game. Yeah, moving on...

5. University — It might of been fun for young adults in real life, but in The Sims 2? Sorry, no can do. It's basically like a private neighborhood with younger residents (all the same age except for the teachers and staff we never see, mind you). It doesn't really add anything to the game. I hate the concept of school in real life, hate it way too much. I know, I know, the work is MUCH easier in the game, but the time is slower than college in real life. Skip it. Oh, and if I lived in Simland, I'd take my high school diploma and forget about college.

Wow, I typed up loads. Back to the Kim Family for now.

Once I get my laptop fixed, I'll be reinstalling TS2, and getting the Seasons, Free Time and Apartment Life expansion packs But, you see...I'm putting all this on a -laptop-. I'm not sure if it would be worth it to include University and Open for Business? I wouldn't quite miss the college, but Uni has instruments, right? And other little things I can't recollect. As for OfB, I never much cared for businesses, but I might end up wanting things from that EP.

What do you guys think? Are those two EPs useful enough to include or do you think I'd be just fine with NL, Seasons, FT and AL? I suppose if anyone could remind me of the higher points of Uni and OfB, that'd be helpful

Seasons lags a LOT unless you set it to summer all year round. FreeTime gets annoying with all the popups, but I think NL and AL are ideal for a laptop: you get the basics... Sims can drive, go out, and rent places to live together.

From best to worst.

1.Seasons-Makes the game way more realistic and i love to farm.
BEst Music SIms2 Ever had

2.Nightlife- It would of been 1st but after getting a whole bunch of eps my computer cant handle it. I used to go out on the town everyday from work and dated a whole lot when i only had like 2 eps but now loading takes too long to go all the time like before and I HATE THE MUSIC THATS THE WORST PART OF THIS EP, but its still great

BV-I dont really have a number set on this one but its really great

3.Apartment Life- I really like it. It starts your life off paying cheaply and having neighbors right there to woohoo and stuff and i like the music

4.FREETIME!- I like this one alot also. For me it defines my sims job, my sims house (if they like to tinker the house would be really electronical) It really gives alot of stuff to what your sims wants to do. ANd SKAtinG Pwn3ds

5.OFB-fun if your aspiration is fortune alot but is only fun for certain people(I like it and my sister hates it and always sucks at running a buisness.)

And i hate university alot but now that i found a hack to make a semester only 1 or 2 days it got funner and isnt completely boring and worthless.

I'm a mac user, and I had a quick question: Will there be a sims 2 free time or Apartment life for us????!!!! I've been really excited to buy free time, imagine my disappointment when it isn't available. Does anyone know if it's coming out at all?

My personal opinions:

I would rank the expansions in the following order (and my whys):

1)Seasons,i just love the idea of having weather ^^ im this winter fantic so its perfect for me. I love the skating rink and the water slide
2)Nightlife,it would of been open for buisness but i love the vampires ^^ i just lovehow u can go to downtown aswell
3)Open for buisness, Ive always wanted to make my own buisness ^^ so thats the basic main reasons that i have.
4)Bon Vovage, love how you could go on holidays again and how there was a swimmable part of teh ocean in your lot
5)Pets,Mmm im unsure about this one its ok i luv the pets not my favorite though
6)Free time, Few things i liked about this one can't think of reason haha
7)University, It would probably be more higher up but i can't be bothered to change the list now ^^ i love how you can have dorms and the young adults
8)Sims 2, its basic but i love it any howz

Fav stuff pack- Mansion+garden stuff or teen style stuff.

One i hate well i hate castaway i just find it boring after awhile
Wasn't much to do in my opinion and i prefer sims in houses lol. I also hated the sims story it was pretty pointless just a few added families.

Worst stuff pack- Mmm eni minie mini moe xS umm errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr well they all have their points so they are all good so the least favorite would have to be ....Oh cheese i don't have a least favorite even Rofl

Personally, my list goes as...

1. Seasons. I LOVE all the new interactions and activities. There's a lot of realism in the game since this EP. The only thing I hate are the endless 'OMG IT'Z RAINING/SNOWING!!!1!!1' actions. I need to find a mod that cancels that...

2. Nightlife. I love vampires. That's it. Also, I recently learned that dating, pleasure, turn off/ons, and cars came from nightlife. I bought sims 2 double deluxe, so Nightlife just came with it.

3. University. Although it can be boring, if done right, it's very useful and fun. Although the coaches, cheerleaders and mascots can be annoying, it adds extra days to your sims life for skills, and getting a diploma helps your sim get a better job from the start. Also good for stories. :3

4. OFB. I just love the craft tables. Everything they make is awesome. Well, the flower table isn't as cool until you get to snapdragons, but other then that, the business aspect is just amazing, as long as you don't get too obsessed with it.

And although I'm getting Freetime tonight, I have to say from the videos and reviews I've seen, it looks so fun~

Yeah free time does look fun it's just i had done my list and realised i missed free time so i placed it anywhere lol. What game is it were you could make toys?? is it open for buisness or free time?

@Diamond123Girl - Its open for business

From best to worst:

Sims 2 Uni: As long as the shorter semester hack is there this one is my favourite. For once EA has put in some decent clothing and I love the instruments. Dormitories are alright but the NPCs take advantage of you by going in my simmies rooms and using their stuff so I get them back by beating them at poker

Sims 2 Freetime: I really like this one because of all the new hobbies it has but usually when I find something good it will soon backfire. Unfortunatley you have all these outfits you would probably only wear once (these are in everyday anyway) clogging up your folder.

Sims 2 Nightlife: I like the idea of dating because it can boost you sims relationship easily. I like the addition of cars too because cars are so much better than a taxi. The idea of a blind date I don't like because my sim will probably end up with a ugly NPC

Sims 2 Seasons: This one is worth buying. The idea of a plantsim is great and sims' house is full of apple, lemon and orange trees and a greenhouse. However most of the outerwear I hate.

Sims 2 Open For Business: I like having a business but when employ someone they will usually quit on their first week which really annoys me and I don't like the idea of my sim walking around in a bright pink gorilla costume.

Sims 2 Pets: This one disappointed me. There are not many features execpt for pets. I enjoyed having pets but the novelty soon wore off and now my lots are pet free execpt for those annoying wants of having bird cages and finding several days later that the bird has died because I forgot about it even though my sims still want to talk to it.

Sims 2 Bon Voyage: Originally this game would be near the top of the list of my favourites but one day I decided my sims could go on holiday since they had the money. I booked them into the camping grounds and the next I tried to play that family but it just went to build/buy mode and they just disappeared. I used the insimenator to get them back but they were at the start of the age they were at. For one sim though he ended up restarting uni after graduating from it. This is why I hate BV so much. One small glitch that EA didn't fix caused me to start my sims life again and it really did annoy me becuase that was my favourite family.

Whoa, there's no Apartment Life for mac?? I was really looking forward to getting that one as soon as I saw a decently priced second-hand copy. Guess I'll stop looking now. Shoot.

1 - Seasons. Was SO pleased when I got it to work after the horrific time I had with the EP before it. Love the seasons and I was really impressed at how they managed to create Autumn sunlight (maybe it's just my monitor. Even so, it's very nice.)

2 - Nightlife. Love having a Downtown. Haven't had any experiences with vampires yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

3 - OFB. No reason, just like it more than...

4 - University. Meh. Incredibly ugly clothing (man, did I dress as horridly when I was in school???) and boring gameplay. Tried it out once, my Sim aced her finals but hadn't eaten and was in the red. Came back to the dorm and made a grilled cheese sandwich, burnt it, I stopped her from eating it and had her start to make another, and she died of hunger. Tragic tale of woe.

5 - Pets. Why would they make dogs be such pains in the butt so really you're forced to just go with having cats? (I'm a cat person, so no biggie, it just seems so unbalanced.) Won't even go into the aforementioned cycle of despair trying to get the thing to work properly puts one into. An evil EP, and the werewolves are ugly.

I've got Bon Voyage on its way to me and can't wait to try it out. VERY psyched at the idea of doing more things with water. Just for that alone, it might grab the #2 spot. We'll see...

Bummed about no Apartment Life. Free Time I don't know too much about. And won't research now.

@Carol: You'll like BV. Swimming in the ocean is so fun, you can also sunbathe, build sandcastles and search for seashells. They have alot of neat little things you can learn like massages, gestures and so on. Some awesome music as well

My previous list has become obsolete, as a lot has changed on my computer in the last few weeks.

First of all, I recently received Free Time and Apartment Life. Second of all, my dad ended up cracking the Sims 2 Deluxe in half...as well as my copy of OFB *sob*, and so bought me the Sims 2 Double Deluxe, which isn't bad...shipped with celebration stuff AND nightlife. But this has rendered all of my previous EPs and SPs useless, as none of them are compatible with Double Deluxe, and so won't work. The only EPs I have that still work with Double Deluxe? Seasons, Free Time, and Apartment Life. And that is because they're all new.

The Sims 2 University: this was the first EP for the Sims 2, but it didn't really make a difference. I wasn't really fond of going to college every single time. Once I found a hack to make college 24 hours per semester, it became a little more bearable. But only a little. To be honest, that your sims goes to one class a day for 4 "years," really doesn't seem probable, and it isn't nearly time consuming enough. Generally, I just maxmotive'd my way through the college years at triple speed. This EP was lackluster in my opinion, and only scored 1/10

The Sims 2 Nightlife: CARS! I can't believe that my sims can own, much less drive, a car! This concept is absolutely mind-blowing, because you couldn't get this kind of action in the Sims. Even after several expansions, your sims are still carless, but you dive into the Sims 2, and by the second EP, your sims are driving! I never used the downtown area, however, much less did I use the option to "go out." Going on dates wouldn't be such a problem if everyone wasn't so much harder to socialize with because of mere chemistry. But hey, every EP has some good and some bad, and that's why it scored 6/10...I mean..cars! But not much else. :/

The Sims 2 Open For Business: this EP was my absolute favorite! I love running businesses, building robots, making flowers (especially snapdragons!), I especially loved owning bakeries. I always made these adorable mom and pop stores, but these days are no more! I miss this EP the most. What I hated most about this EP was that if you owned a home business, and had the open/closed sign up, and you were closed, you couldn't invite people over. They would show up on your lot, and then leave! This doesn't necessarily do anything to the score of this particular EP, however, as it still scored 10/10

The Sims 2 Pets: this EP dampened my spirits a bit, because in the Sims Unleashed, having a pet was so awesome! But somehow, this time around, pets seemed, well, boring. Sure, now your pets could get jobs, and you could take them on walks, and OMG THEY CAN SIT ON THE FURNITURE! And who hasn't seen a toddler cuddle a kitty or a puppy? It's adorable! But it doesn't change the fact that pets piss everywhere (even if you have a litterbox! Stupid cat!), I can't figure out how to put their stupid collars on, they always dig up my yard, my %)*#(*% trashcan gets tipped over even when people aren't furious at me, oh, and the stray pets disappear before you can adopt them, and they don't reappear for a long, long time. I also effing hated that my sims ALWAYS, without fail, rolled a want to adopt a pet. Even the romance sims let me down! All in all, this EP only scored 3/10

The Sims 2 Seasons: I love love love love that it snows, and rains, and leaves fall on the ground! I love gardening, I also love cultivating a PlantSim, some of the outerwear even looks decent. You know what I don't love? That every time it rains, hails, or snows, my sims all stop what they're doing, rush to a window, and look out while displaying shock, disgust, or happiness. I think the little penguin that shows up in winter time is just to precious! But with the adorable penguin comes the inability to find your mail in a bale of snow. I've had repo man visit me a lot. Factoring in the adorable penguin, and some not so adorable sim behavior, this EP scored 8/10

The Sims 2 Bon Voyage: I've read both good and bad reviews on this particular EP, but personally...I do not own it. I'm not even sure I really want it, because I didn't actually use the Sims Vacation, so I'm really hesitant about spending $20 on an EP I won't use.

The Sims 2 Free Time: Hobbies! Personality! Lifetime aspiration bars! I love sending my sims jogging, or hiking, the new excercise bike has really caught my attention. The new careers are quite awesome, as well! Dance, Architecture, Performance Artist, ah! So refreshing. At this point, I'm not sure, but I'm getting pretty sick of my sims rolling wants to max their enthusiasm in a certain hobby, I also don't like that the hobbies are random, because I generally have certain types of hobbies, etc, picked out for my sims, and then they end up being into something totally opposite, which sometimes ruins the story I'm brewing in my head. >_< In the end, however, this EP almost has my heart, and scored a 7/10

*A note on this EP, though, for some reason, after installation; my knowledge sims LTW to max all 7 skills will not be achieved! No matter how many times I boolprop him down to zero in each field, and have him work all the way back up, it won't be accomplished. I don't understand. :[

The Sims 2 Apartment Life: the Sims. Paying rent. What more could I possibly say? MAGIC. That's right. Magic! I have so many witches in my game, that they're going out of style. I missed magic so much, and I've missed it ever since my transition from the Sims. The Sims Makin' Magic, being an expansion pack of it's own, had a huge part in the original, and while magic has a seriously subdued part in the Sims 2, I'm still completely stupefied by it's reappearance. I play for hours just having my sims cast spells, I'm just sooo thrilled. Apartments are finally helping me achieve my old folks retirement communities, as well. I've always wanted to group all my old people together in cute little retirement homes, and it's happening. It's also good for my single sims. Who love partying. And waking up their neighbors. Hahaha. Out of mere torture to my noisy neighbors, this EP scores a 9/10

*And was it this EP or Free Time that "Walk to..." came with? Because I absolutely adore that feature. I hardly drive anymore, I just walk. :D, 'tis why Nightlife scored so low.

I think stuff packs are a waste of money. :/



OFB! And this isn't just because it's my favorite, but because Well...a lot of bugs seems to have shipped with both Pets and Bon Voyage. But if owning a business isn't your thing, then I would definitely go with Bon Voyage...don't waste your money on Pets. Because, as far as I see it, no matter how adorable pets are, it will never make up for their annoyingness. I often forgot to feed my pets. :/

I thought the same of BV, except in my head, I was thinking, what's the point of all this fake scenery? I don't need it. But it actually lets your Sims go on vacation (they even have secret lots) and it's possible to create swimmable lakes with just the original game. Beach lots can be placed on custom maps.

OfB isn't good, unless you really want your Sim to become a businessy type. It does come with elevators, but your Sim basically won't have a life in this one (at least the one that owns the business(es)), not even a dog or cat. Of course, it's good for those who love minimal and hate huge Sim fams.

Sorry for double posting, but your profile says you only possess Celebration SP. That's the worst one Maxis put out, at least in my opinion. It looks pretty, but there's very little items... and even less use for it.

I'm a bit late to the Sim scene, so I ended up with Double Deluxe (Original, Nightlife, and Celebration stuff for just $17.99!). The cars, gowns, and balloons just came free.

I stated, in the first paragraph of my post to be precise, that the reason I have Celebration stuff is because I have Double Deluxe. So, as you can see, I am just as savvy as you are.

And I still hold to my opinion that stuff packs are a waste of money. :]

So you don't own any of them?

Sorry, it's 3:03 AM.

I owned Glamour Life Stuff. It was a present, and it added some okay clothes and a couple new objects (my favorite being the giant painting of the red-head, great mesh to use for custom paintings), but it didn't add enough to be worth $20

I also owned Teen Style Stuff (I liked this one, but lost the disc), and H&M Fashion stuff.

I can't rank them all because all of them are 99% useless waste of hard drive space. The only thing good about them are the items and skills which will only account for a few megabytes.

Btw. I only play with all of these installed since there are items that I need that can only be accessed on a certain expansion.

University - My 1st generation Sims sent their children to college to bring the Coco Pinball and all the other career rewards. The current Sims right now can raise more than $100,000 during their tenure there as well as going to learn the Ninja Teleport and the Voodoo Doll. Basically, all they need to do is to produce an offspring once out of college and get all the career rewards for their kid. Other than adding some extra lifespan, it's worthless especially the Zombie.

Apartment Life - Only for the Witch Life State since they don't need to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom and all that as long as they have a Throne. Apartments are useless.

Bon Voyage - Voodoo Dolls and the Ninja Teleport are great other than that, those mementos, bigfoot and all that garbage is worthless.

Freetime - Only for the Genie's "Give me peace of mind" if you don't like using boolprop. Other than that it's screwed-up as hell useless. Secret lots are useless. Hobby NPCs are annoying.

Nightlife - Used to have a Romance Sim which quickly got boring. The dating system is extremely repetitive. Why bother with a car if you can have helicopter. Being a vampire is worthless unless you do some alien-zombie-vampire-werewolf-witch-plantsim combo which WILL wear out its novelty soon enough.

Pets - Pets are fun at the start but they get boring fast. Their only actual use is to boost the child's aspiration meter with all that endless Command Fido to speak stuff instead of have *insert name* as a friend. Those animals are useful for getting extra cash though. Werewolf life-state is worthless (Howl? Heh. How silly) since a witch is infinitely more powerful.

8. Seasons - Plantsims are great. Seasonal effects' novelty will wear out soon enough. Garden is boring (talk to plants? C'mon!).

If they added all of these to the core game, it wouldn't amount to a slowload-of-gigabytes-(10 gigabytes for the core and expansions? I can't see the 10 gigs worth of game anywhere)-even-if-you-have-a-quad-core-uber-video-card-noCC/hacks-etc-. not to mention the insane amount of critical bugs that Eaxis can't/won't fix.

A big "Thank You" for the modders for addressing the concerns that Eaxis won't fix.

I agree with mostly everything here. I don't understand HOW IN THE WORLD FT GOT SUCH POSITIVE REVIEWS. I mean, HELLO, don't people see those popups? Secret lots are basically mini community lots, and even at that, the right to "visit" one can be immediately revoked once your Sim(s) lose(s) "interest" in one (or more) subjects. I heard there's a hack to block those popups, but they said it was still annoying and excessive. I can't seem to find it anywhere, anyway.

Like it says in my previous posts, I have Double Deluxe, so Nightlife and the Celebration SP were basically free for me along with the base game. I wouldn't buy those separately if I just had the base, or simply Deluxe. I can't even tell what Nightlife truly ADDS to the game, besides the "Johnny is HOT!!! YES!!!" and shiny cars. Fill me in, anyone?

Your uni plan sounds very interesting. I might try that.

Got it yesterday! Haven't played yet, just spent last night installing on a cc/download-free set of freshly-installed previous eps, then adding the downloads I'd saved a little bit at a time to make sure all ran smoothly. Paged through the build/buy and am really psyched to start playing tonight after work.

Still bumming about no AL. I really miss a 'Makin' Magic' presence in the game and miss that old Sims 1 EP pretty much every day. Not enough to buy a PC though (or install boot camp et al.)

Can't wait to do beach lots.

Truth be told, AL's magic section isn't all it's knocked up to be. It's not even half as good as TS1 was. IMO, we can become witches and that's about it.

I wonder why they avoided more major themes like Magic as in Makin' Magic and something I'd really love to see, a Space/SF themed EP. Homes on the moon, shopping at a space station... I know people have worked up 'space' terrains and ships and all, but it's not quite the same thing. Undersea would be great too; when I tried out Second Life for a few weeks there was one location that had just beautiful terrain and fish swimming around in an undersea tropical 'paradise.' Would LOVE to see a whole EP like that...

WITH A MAC VERSION!

Well, they've never had anything like that in any of the games. Come to think of it, they don't have ANY "Old World" or incredibly modern, or ANY type of themes. Maxis is... boring.

If you have Pets (I don't know if they have that for Mac), the Kim family lives in a truly modern house. The premade description dubbed them as former actors (and for the ma, actress) for "life in the future".

BV is the last expansion pack i've bought and omg why did i wait so long! beaches! holidays! beaches and................beaches!
I'm just miffed that i can't put beach lots in PV. Why oh why are their roads so far from the water?!

I'm absolutely in love with seasons. I live in the southeastern part of the US and it rarely snows or gets really cold here, and so I had a fit when it snowed on my lot. Seriously, I took so many pictures, it was pathetic. I built snowmen (this is one thing I've never been able to do in real life), made snow angels and had probably had way more fun than my sims, who freeze way too quickly.
My question is this, though...why do sims roll wants to have water balloon fights when it's snowing, and can they die from it?

Should I get Seasons or Apartment life?

Oooh that's a hard one...I love both. I'd start with Seasons and then get Apartment Life later.

Well, Seasons really depends. While I love it, the snow lags up my game something fierce (while nothing else does, odd.)

But so does Apartment Life. So if I had a choice, go with Seasons...as stygia2002 said.

Fishing! Gardening! Plant sims! Witches really aren't that exciting if you weren't into the Makin' Magic EP from TS1...but if you were, like I am, you would love witches ^_^ Those are AL, just so we're clear.

Seasons it is! Thanks guys.

For the same reason adolescent boys do - it's cruel AND fun!

I dunno if they can die from it (watch the temperature gauge?) but maybe they can get sick?

Your fascination with the snow sounds like mine with water/beach lots. Although I live in a coastal city, I rarely get to see the sea very often and have always wanted a beachfront home (DESPITE living in a coastal city, lol!) It's a pathetic sort of vicarious 'life,' but on the other hand, one gets to create as many different and different-looking homes as they want. (And not have them washed away.)

Evanlee, if they still make those Sno-Cone machines for kids, you could get one and shave up some ice and make yourself a mini snowman! You could keep it in your freezer! And then/during/after, you could make sno-cones!

Sorry, but IMO they just suck. Everything's already been said.

I currently only have Bon Voyage (for beach lots, as everything else is a bore) and Nightlife installed (the latter due to my copy of Double Deluxe). All the SPs suck, I think IKEA and Celebration would of been decent if they had added way more stuff (they don't even fill up a "page"; go check). If you like these "trendy"/"modern" clothes, H&M is great for you. Some people say it's too preppy or cheap.

There's certain items you can find only in a particular EP or SP, but they're not worth your $19.95. Some people don't even trust the Sims store.

en7en, the famous pagoda creator on here, only has the base game. I should of followed his example.

I have everything but now need to get rid of it, and it sucks that I won't be able to use certain lots on here anymore as purchasing them all is a free ticket for CC, but whatever. I'm wondering what people actually do with their old expansions and stuff packs. I seriously want to give everything away to charity, no one is going to buy it from me.

Oh pooh. I found this hack, and it isn't excessive at all. Blocked just about everything, and it's really rather nice. ^_^

I'd link it if I remembered where I got it. Darn.

It's still useless. I don't care about hobbies. The new cribs, drawing table, and ballet and bohemian outfits are the only good things about it.

That sounds just about like most of the game, you're talking about. If the only bad thing about this EP is hobbies, then it really isn't that bad.

Please, I paid $19.99 for a damn crib and boho skirt (I wouldn't be caught dead in IRL) when it was clearly advertised that the EP was hobbies plus? No thanks.

So, I'm to take it that you don't like that your sims can walk places without a vehicle? That you don't enjoy having secondary aspirations? That you didn't like any of the new careers? Wow. You must be a hard person to make happy, if this is the case. I'd steer clear of the sims in the future if none of the EP's made you smile even a little bit.

No lies here, I'm ranked as the pickiest person ever IRL. Not to brag or anything.

If I said it, then that's what it is, seriously.

There have been some great responses in this thread; I believe Unregistered00 pretty much took the cake. No one hated on him.

I need help.

I'm seriously considering buying Bon Voyage (mostly because it's the only EP I don't own.)

I've been looking at every single review site that I could, but none of the reviews are detailed enough for my tastes.

Pros and cons of Bon Voyage? Someone? Please?

Well, Bon Voyage adds vacations, cool new stuff, and apparently, you can swim in the ocean (I haven't done that yet, due to a lengthy inability to play my game properly...an issue that just got lengthier <fold arms and glare angrily at the corner> ). It also adds the ability to have all choices for things like university, vacation destinations and the like in each neighborhood so that you don't have to choose just one.

The con, at least for me, is that I'm not that into the whole vacation thing. Other than that, it's a decent addition, though, admittedly, my least favorite EP. But for other people, it's their favorite...so I think it's just a matter of what you enjoy.

In my opinion:

PROS
-Swimmable sea
-Sun tans (now my rich sims look even more glamorous with their suntans and sun glasses) and sun burns!!
-Vacation homes for your very rich sims (how cool is to have a nice house by the beach. Think: The Sims Hamptons!)
-Actual Honeymoons
- Digital Cameras: finally your sims can take in-game pictures and hang them on the wall (good for weddings, children...)

CONS
-There is not that much to do while on vacation (unless you're into challenges, then you can try and complete all the "objectives").
-Going on vacation is pretty expensive
- Actual home life remains pretty much the same (no changes there)

Thank you!
I have many many sims in my neighborhood who have millions of dollars, so I don't think that the vacation expenses would put much of a dent in their net worth :/

Howdy.
Yesterday I almost killed myself attempting to decide between University, Bon Voyage and Seasons.
Finally, I went with University and am glad I did.
But next time I buy an EP; I don't want to stand in Target for ten minutes trying to decide.

So, Bon Voyage or Seasons?
I am not interested in Open For Business at all, and Free Time doesn't seen that interesting. Apartment Life, maybe, but it will take some convincing for me.
owo

My main reason for wanting Season is the outerwear, and partially my main reason for wanting Bon Voyage is the jewelry.
Yes, leave it up to a girl to make clothing the main reason she gets something.

Seasons all the way. Bon Voyage isn't half as fun without seasons anyway. Maybe it doesn't add a new neighborhood like BV, but it adds weather, a whole new clothing category, an option to harvest your own vegetables etc. and so many things that affect your sims' everyday lives, (unlike BV, which doesn't add much to your sims home lives, only the option to go on vacation)

ETA: if you want jewlery there are some amazing downloads out there that work without BV because they are categorized as "glasses" e.g: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=289155&c=1

But beware that Seasons will hit your RAM hard, so unless you have a really good amount, your system will pay for it.

Or you could just be smart and buy just a couple along with Seasons — plasticbox only has Nightlife (I think she bought it separately, as she is seen using it in creations as early as 2005, before they released the bundled Deluxe in 2007 and Double Deluxe the following year), Open for Business, Seasons, and Pets. She does pretty well.

Hell, I wish I were that smart. I wouldn't of bought Pets, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, and Apartment Life (all sold except for BV).

Bon Voyage is wonderful with beach lots and hammocks along with a few new building tools and items, but that's the best I can say about it. Bigfoot? Sorry, I don't care about him. Your Sims get one meet and memory with him — sure, you could move him in, but he's dark and ugly — and it only fulfills 1,000 or 2,000 points. The touristy and trip stuff is just useless.

I really have no opinion on the stuff packs, I like the ones I’ve got and I haven’t bought the ones that didn’t seem interesting to me... So I’m leaving them off this list. So out of the EPs I’ve got:

1 – Seasons. It brings not only a very welcome variation with the changes in the scenery, it brings fun new boosts for each season. And it brings the gardening stuff! I love that part, it’s so much fun. And it means my Sims can support themselves without having to go to work, once they get the garden going. This was definitely the EP that added the most to the game IMHO.
2 – University. I’ve had it for so long that I’ve almost forgotten it’s an EP, but I really like all the goodies that come with it. It always pays to send your Sims to college. True it is rather dull at times, but with a good hack you can put them through college fast and reap the benefits
3 – Nightlife. I don’t go downtown all that often, I must confess, but when I do it’s always fun.
4 – Open for Business.This one I bought mostly because it was on sale... I’ve never really gotten the hang of the business aspect of it; for some reason no matter what I do Sims won’t purchase anything from the stores, they’ll only use that thingy that allows them to use the stuff in the house. Plus, I prefer staying in my lots when I play (going to college being the exception) so starting up shops on separate lots isn’t really my kind of thing.
5 – My least favorite is definitely Pets. I find the pets dull, annoying and in the way. Therefore it’s kind of a waste of money to buy the expansion pack, but still it’s something I can live with. What I find harder to put up with are those annoying strays that come running around all the friggin’ time. The wolves especially. Ugh, I hate them! I also really dislike that the Sims become friggin obsessed with pets once you’ve installed the EP. They keep having wants for pets, they have annoying lifetime aspirations concerning pets... As far as I’m concerned, Pets added nothing good and brought with it lots of bad. The only reason I keep it installed is that I like some of the clothes that came with it, and I’ve got some downloaded stuff that needs the pack.

i would buy them off you if their not scrated up and you offer a good price, i really want some new ep's cause the game is getting stale all i have is double deluxe, so if your still interested in selling old eps mail me the info

I finally broke down and bought Bon Voyage. Beach lots are nice, I enjoy the furniture that it came with, I also enjoy being able to spend my legacy family's vast millions on vacation homes that I will never really go to. What I don't like is that my game has spawned hundreds of stupid vacationers and locals.

My favorite would have to be Bon Voyage because of all the landscaping goodies. Besides the obvious beach lot option, it also brought many gorgeous tropical plants that are native to where I live. I have papaya trees all over my backyard, the new palm trees in the game are in my frontyard, and I love the hydra hyacinth, which I have growing in my koi pond in the frontyard as well. I might upload some pictures later.

Anywhoooo... the one that absolutely gets on my f-ing nerves is University. It takes forever for the sims to graduate and it's a total drag trying to keep their grades up. Not to mention, they don't even have time to do much of the "campus life" stuff, like making friends with secret society members or getting pledges for their fraternity/sorority. Blah. The only reason I send any of them to college is so they won't be miserable for not going. That's when I temporarily give up on a family legacy.

I have a question about the Mansion and Garden stuff pack.

Someone told me that walking to work & school was carried over to this stuff pack if you didn't own Apartment Life, but I'm wondering, were ceilings also carried over?

Expansion Packs:
First: BV! I haven't experienced any bugs with it at all. I love the vacations. I love it. I love going to the Far East. I love the beach. I love Bon Voyage. The clothes are not horrid. I love it. Do I need to say more? I know it takes up a lot of space on my computer, but since my computer is less than a year old and barely has anything installed, I have room for it.
Second: Apartment Life! Being a witch and a wizard is AWESOME! I have at least ten playable ones. The apartments are so cool and rather easy to make. The clothes are the best, almost as good as OFB. The only problem is that there are so many NPC's. I also like the reputation meter - it doesn't really mean everything, but I like seeing how my sims are doing in the social status.
Third: Seasons! The country furniture is awesome! I love the rain, summer, falling leaves, snow, everything about Seasons - except for the plantsims, which is the weirdest thing I've seen so far in Sims 2. Well, they're okay - at least I never have to feed them. I don't like how trees are giant matchsticks in thunderstorms, and they are always catching on fire and my sims are always freaking out and the butler always calls the fire department, but the fire is out by then and the fireman yells at my sim. I wish trees would never get struck by lightning. It doesn't happen every time there is a storm in real life.
Fourth: University! I like the instruments, the college life, some of the outfits, the new majors and especially the careers. The only bad thing is the evil mascot, of course, but I just shoo him as soon as he comes. I also like the dorms - they allow more building opportunities. Again, so many NPC's come with this. Why did this get bad reviews? I like this one. Okay, the semesters are long, but your Sims get to live longer, right? And you can play longer with them. And there are a lot of people who don't go to college. But I like it - University has more good than bad. Couldn't live without the drum set too. Plus, if your sim doesn't want to go to college, if your sim is bored with it they can just drop out.
Fifth: Open for Business! Okay, the robot bench? That is COOL. And the clothes for women are decent, and so are the hairstyles. It's confusing navigating that little menu at the top at first, but I got the hang of it quickly. My sims have always wanted to do businesses. I don't know how it got bad reviews!
Sixth: Nighlife! This was actually a tie with OFB and Uni, but it didn't have enough new actions. Plus, Ms. Crumplebottom ruins dates. I love the cars, but I think the base game should have had them, so that my sims wouldn't have to get taxis everywhere and always carpool to work. I don't like most of the clothes either. But it's got vampires! Now that is cool. Bleh!
Seventh: Pets. Please do not get this expansion pack. It is a waste. The pets don't do anything, and your sims waste too much money on pets that end up getting practically neglected. The strays show up at bad times, like when you do machinima and there is a cat in the background or something. And they always bite your sims and whenever you shoo them it clutters your Sims' memory with new "I met a pet" memories.

Stuff Packs:
First: Teen Style Stuff! The teen clothes on this are sooo awesome! They look like... well they look like what teens would wear. The room collections are great - especially the surfer room. I wish there were a few more collections though. I guess teen style is good for a stuff pack. I wish that it brought in a FEW clothes for other age groups.
Second: Celebration Stuff. This one is okay - I got it with Double Deluxe, and it has good cakes, wedding arches, and dresses. Other than that, it doesn't have much stuff.

I do have kind of low expectations, so if my reviews are too positive, then that's why. I don't own Free Time, but it looks really fun and I'm planning on getting it soon.

An expansion pack/stuff pack I would take off - I wish that if I had to, I could take off Celebration Stuff, but since it's part of DD, I can't. If I had to take off an expansion/stuff, I would debate between Teen Style and Pets. Teen Style, well I love the stuff, but it's just STUFF if you know what I mean. The pets are pretty annoying, but it would be weird living Sim life after having pets and then not, and I'm looking forward to making a werewolf family. So if I absolutely had to, I would take off Teen Style. I could always get teen clothes off here.

For me, I would have to say:

1 - Apartment Life. That really bugged me, that my $20,000 starter families w/ 2 adults and 3 children had to try and move into $18,000 houses straightaway and get enough stuff to make them at least satisfied with only $2,000. I always wanted apartments/duplexes in my game (because where I live, there's a LOT of those) and I literally squealed when I saw that it was coming. Plus, I think this was the pack when they started adjusting how much cash a CAS family started with - soooooo nice to get even just a few thousand more simoleans.

2 - Bon Voyage: loved the vacationing. Don't often use it, but love it when I do. Plus, the Far East tea table was a lovely addition to my salons and spas!!

3 - Seasons: like the gardening aspect and the weather changes - to a certain extent. Don't really like that lightning keeps hitting my trees and making my Sims run out to panic in the rain, and a lot of the pre-installed houses (in particular, the Pleasant house in Pleasantview) weren't built with thermometers in mind, so Angela nearly froze to death numerous times before I figured out the problem (her room wasn't "fully enclosed", so the game tagged her as being outside and made her temperature drop in winter.)

If I had to get rid of one, I would probably go with Open for Business. I very rarely use it - tried it once and failed miserably. Think I might try it again, though, in my new neighbourhood.

Favourite EPs

1 Nightlife
+ Nightclubs, restaurants, bowling, etc (I like to have many community lots in my 'hood, I have not less than 6 nightclubs and 5 restaurants)
+ dating
+ cars
+ turn-ons and turn-offs
+ vampires (I never play neither them nor any other supernatural creatures in my game, but still, many people like them)

- you can meet a vampire only if you go downtown
- most DJs are sooo fugly

2 Freetime
+ new hobbies to make your sims' lives much more interesting, and objects for hobbies
+ ability to make some things, unavailable in buy mode
+ hobby-related interactions (some allow your sims to earn money)
+ movies on TV

- annoying secret society members who smash into your house to invite you to a secret lot, or those messages popping up every time you start doing anything from watering flowers to looking at your new sculpture)

3 Seasons
+ weather (it adds much realism)
+ gardening and fishing
+ some cool new sets of furniture

- sims walk under the rain without umbrellas - isn't it wierd?
- in cold seasons, sims who visit the household you are playing in, or a community lot, tend to remain in their outerwear indoors sometims. It is irritating to see your sims' visitors sitting at the table in the dining room and eating in coats and gloves.
- penguins pass your house by in winter and talk to the snowmen

4 BV
+ travelling
+ nice themed sets and decorative objects
+ digging for treasures
+ Beach lots! (i really like them)

- there could have been more than three destinations to travel to
- locals are ugly (actually, almost all NPCs are, though)
- sometimes BV is kinda glitchy

Least favourite EP - Uni
+ student life, new majors and careers
+ mobile phones

- too many odd creatures hanging around (those guys in llama suits and the naked dudes who can come in and annoy you any time)
- it takes forever to make your sims graduate
- there's too little attention paid to studying itself

Favourite SPs
1 IKEA (really stylish and modern furniture)
2 H&M (cute clothes, stylish building materials and objects to build a store)
3 Mansions and Gardens ( a lot of awesome building materials and plants)

Least Favourite SPs
1 Family Fun Stuff (all the things look like toys, they seem unsuitable even for nurseries; stupid clothes and walls)
2 Celebration stuff ( there's much useless content either, like Christmas themed walls)

I have a small question. If you had to choose one, would it be Freetime or A.L?

I would choose Freetime, in retrospect, but it really depends on what you're into. If you like apartments (and a bit of lag) apartment life is for you, because even witches aren't a bunch of bells and whistles.

I'd pick Freetime. I use it so much. The constant pop-ups are a little annoying, but I love having sims that work at home. Freetime adds so many options for earning money at home, you can restore cars, make pottery, sew...
And I love the aspiration benefits and secondary aspirations! I always felt bad making parents that were say, Fortune and Knowledge but allowing them to have family as their secondary aspiration is great there. You know, obssessed with science but loves his kids. It adds a lot of dept, I think.

I haven't actually played AL yet but I sure hope it's better for me than FT was. Freetime got so old. I mean, ya you get some new hobbies and objects, but I just don't think its worth getting called constantly only to here "hello, i here that your learning about cuisine. If you continue to learn about it, we'd be happy to welcome you in sue's secret kitchen" I swear. I got those calls everytime my sims ate food, or watched tv, or read a book, or really anything. I got so sick of it. Come to think of it, did ft even come with a new creature?(you know, werewolves, vampires, etc.) Wow, this a lot longer than I thought it would be.....

Free Time gave you the genie...

(Not that you ever got to turn into one. You just got the gypsy to drop off the lamp and then forget to do her job forever after that until they got the patch right. Or rather until Pescado got her fixed.)

My favorite is seasons because of the ability to grow your own food, the weather and seasonal effects. Pets is a close second. My only complaints are not being able to control the animals the way you do sims, and no reptile pets. The "womrats" are guinea pigs so why couldn't they have just called them that or made them more hamster like and called them hamsters? And it's to hard to turn a sim into a werewolf (I could never do it. I had a lady make best friends with a wolf with glowing eyes and she stayed a person).

My least favorite would have to be univerisity because I feel as if I payed $30 for nothing. If I had to uninstall a pack it would be univerisity.

i think my fav pack was nightlife. it expanded the world without making it insanely convoluted, and vampires were fun.

least fav... university. well, university and pets. i hated the pets. they were SO BLOODY ANNOYING and totally not like real pets at all D< those pets were nuisances in pet form! not worth the money i shelled out for that expansion!
and uni just kinda pissed me off. xD~ a lot. and just too many fugly townies T_T

I agree. Right now, Pets is the only EP I don't own (sold it on Amazon). However, I saw Uni at Electronic Fry's for $6.50 USD! There's a lot of good deals on Uni and Nightlife, seeing as how they're the first EPs.

Weighing in...

1) Seasons
+ Weather effects, especially snowing
+ Hot chocolate
+ Water balloon fights!
+ OMG penguins! So. Cute.
- Freezing/sunstroke can get in the way sometimes.

2) Free Time
+ Secret lots
+ Hobby enthusiasm builds like skills
- The constant phone calls and people interrupting my sims about their interests. Enough already! Grrrr!

3) Nightlife
+ The matchmaker
+ New playable subneigbourhoods for all sims
+ More modern build/buy mode items
+ Inventory
- Vampires. Not enough interactions and too hard to become one.

4) Open For Business
+ Elevators
+ Talent badges
- When Servos run amok

5) University
+ Sim campus life in general
+ Streaking! LOL
+ More want slots
+ Hippie-themed stuff. Cosmic, man!
- Having to use cheats in order to build your own dorms.

I have everything except Pets (sold it, the little creatures are too annoying), Kitchen & Bath, Happy Holiday, Teen Style, and Family Fun.

For those of you who have those expansions (and stuff packs), what clothing and hairstyles do those add, if any?

I was thinking of buying another stuff pack (much to the dismay of my parents), however I've heard those four are all mediocre. Kitchen & Bath, I've played before but gave it away, doesn't add anything except a few tubs (one shower is just a recolor of the glass door shower thing Maxis made, except with higher stats), towel racks, and bathrobes. Oh, and I think there were some paintings and the official website says male clothes.

I've heard Happy Holiday is overrated and overpriced.

Family Fun and Teen Style, same as Happy Holiday. A few things for the kids, but not much.

I may end up not buying at all, I feel like I spent too much on Sims 2 games already.

Thanks for any feedback!

I just bought Apartment Life and Glamour Life. I know I said I wasn't going to buy any stuff packs, but I caved when I saw GL.

EDIT: Goddamn I'm so addicted.

Glamour Life has too little items. Your profile says you're a guy. Most of the items I found to be too girly, even for me.

I'm a guy with a number of attractive female Sims. I like the GL stuff, especially the fur coat.

What does being a guy have to do with whether or not you like the items in an expansion pack?

See my earlier post:



I did not think a guy would really have use for redhead girl comic posters or high heeled statues, however he said he has many female Sims.

I still only have the basegame but I really want Nightlife for cars. That's it. I've had TS2 since 2006, look at how far behind I am. I don't care much for Seasons since I live in the southwest and we get enough wild weather- a drought one week and a snowstorm the next, literally- and don't need it in my game. I don't want Pets, not interested in Business- I just want NL. But to get a hacked wedding arch in mah game I need an ep made after Open for Business or something. ....and I want me some ACR. *sigh*

If you had waited, the Deluxe version of the game came out in May 2007, combined with Nightlife. I bought Double Deluxe, which has Nightlife and Celebration Stuff in two... that would of finished it for you.

I seen many stores having sales on expansions now. As I stated earlier, Uni and NL can now be found for under $10 USD in many stores, especially considering the season.

Apartment Life has been the answer to my prayers!

+Ceilings. OMG they finally added ceilings! My machinima sets never looked better.
+Witches. I still have yet to try this part out, but it looks promising.
+ZOMG HELICOPTERS! FULLY SICK!
+The ability to turn off landline phones. Take that, FreeTime!
+More playground equipment for kids.
+The ability to have both my main Sim families on the same lot by way of an apartment building.

-The fact that, like dorms in University, you need to cheat in order to build your own apartment blocks.

Yeah, I guess I'll get it and some RAM.

I'm sorry if this isn't the place to ask this, or if someone already has, but I was curious about Castaway Stories. Is it any good? I understand it is separate from the Sims 2 game, so will I be able to use any custom content in it?

I'm asking for BV and AL for XMas, and I have NL, Pets, Seasons, and the base game. Good choices for my wishlist? Is SecuROM going to kill my laptop?

I dont have them all quite yet, my mom took some off me for christmas bnefore i installed them. for Stuff pakcs H&M fashion stuff. though we can download clothes from here the originals are sooo lame!

My fave expansion pack actually is Univercity tbh. idk why.

Definitely good choices. AL is a great addition.

Seasons, Pets, Freetime, Uni, AL...there's something I like about each pack....my least favorite are NL and BV. I think it's worth it to have them all though....I do like my Bigfoot(feet) :lovestruc , I have several...they're a favorite right now...all we need is a female. I'd like some Bigfoot families.

I have the Double Deluxe so I have NL and CS. I also have FT and now seasons.

I also have Uni with Ikea Home Stuff and Teen Style Stuff. I lost my disk though so I had to uninstall. =(

NL is cool but I think CS is kinda lame. I could do without the wacky bridal hair and dresses.

I liked Uni and especially the Ikea stuff. So I'm sad I can't find my disk anywhere.

FT is okay. I thought it would be better. I just bought seasons like 2 hours ago and have yet to play it so I'll find out soon if I like it or not.

I have played all the "stories" games and I must say you are much better off sticking with TS2 and getting EPs and building on to your game. Or you could get The Sims 3 because apparently the "stories" set were testers for The Sims 3 and trying out different things (more open neighbour hoods etc.)
If it was my choice, I'd keep going with TS2 or move onto TS3. If you like the adventure aspects of Castaway you could get Bon Voyage for TS2 or World Adventures for TS3
Hope this helps!

i liked university, seasons, and apartments. i didn't like pets that much. i love animals in real life, but in sims i just wasn't that impressed. it seems like it came with a lot more hassle than anything else. i never played bon voyage or open for business, sadly.
i view nightlife almost as one with the base game. it just seems like a necessity. i can't imagine my game without nl.
i've never purchased a stuff pack. i guess i'm pretty frugal, but i never really saw the point of spending money on new content when i could just download even better cc.

My favourites are :

1)Open for business - it is fun to have business

2)Seasons

3) Nightlife - i love Vampires :D

4) H&M - Cant imagine how i play sims without this stuffpack. I just love those clothes!

5) Teen Style - i love when my every kids room is special.

6) Apartment Life - just love it.

Well i love Pets too but it is not important expension pack to me. I can play without it too.

It's been a lot since i last posted here; My vision over EP's changed radically... somehow

1) Seasons. Everyone agrees it's the best.
2) Bon Voyage. Vacantions were very entertaining, vacantion mementos were a very nice addition. It's just fun.
3) OFB. The idea behind it it's very simple, but it's kinda fun. Other then that, playable Servos were one of the best ideas they had.
4) Pets. They are cute, CAP is very complex, and the praise/scold skills are very intresting. It has a lot of downfalls, but the few content it brings is very good.
5) Nightlife. Much less practical then Hot Date, because of the load times between your hood and the Downtown. This EP bought some intresting new content like turn-ons and turn-offs, dates/outings, the aspiration changing machine, and vampires... but that's all.
6) Apartment Life. Apartments are simple, and a good addition, though not what i was thinking of. The magic is the only thing that brings this EP up in my eyes. Not as complex as in Sims 1, but enjoyable nevertheless.
7) University. It's not very good, lags because of the large ammounts of sims in the campus (or w/e), and the content it offers isn't who knows what.
8) Free Time. Seriously... the Genie isn't even playable, you get a lot of stupid prompts about "hobbies" and the Hobby secret lots are in a different hood, meaning pointless loading screens. The only good things from it are aspiration benefits, which can and probabbly will make the game way too easy.

I know I already posted on here, but well, my opinions changed

Expansion Packs:
First: Apartment Life. This expansion pack NEVER gets old or boring, it's usually the reason I keep playing Sims 2. It has so many more building options and it's so much more complex.
Second: Seasons!
Third: Bon Voyage.
Fourth: Freetime! I just got this one.
Fifth: University!
Sixth: Open for Business!
Seventh: Nighlife! Bleh!
Seventh: Pets. Please do not get this expansion pack. It is a waste. The pets don't do anything, and your sims waste too much money on pets that end up getting practically neglected. The strays show up at bad times, And they always bite your sims and whenever you shoo them it clutters your Sims' memory with new "I met a pet" memories.

Stuff Packs:
First: Ikea Stuff! I was surprised at how cheap the furniture is in here when I got this expansion for my birthday recently.
Second: Teen Style Stuff!
Third: Celebration Stuff. This one is okay - I got it with Double Deluxe, and it has good cakes, wedding arches, and dresses. Other than that, it doesn't have much stuff.

The End. In summary: Get AL. Not Pets.

is there anyway to have the instruments without having uni? i want to have seasons but my computer always crashes if i have them both installed. and i like seasons better anyway except i love the guitars for my sims T-T

Hm..... There may be a download here, or on other sights, but you need Uni to have the basic guitar.

so basically if i dont have uni then even if i downloaded guitar meshes they wont work?

Here, let me go over this. If you don't have Uni, you can't use the guitars and drums. BUT if you might download a file or mod, you might be able to play a guitar still, even without Uni. But i don't know where those downloads might be.

my suggestion is open for business first, seasons second.

Bah, I suck, I missed this and posted a new thread. Bad Mega, no biscuit. Why don't we have the smiley of hitting someone over the head with a fish?

Anyhoo. Ikea Stuff. Is it just me or is there not very much stuff in it? I was hoping for modular desks, or maybe my Tovik corner desk... the one with my gaming computer on it... that would be really meta.

There isn't a huge amount of stuff in the Ikea pack itself but HugeLunatic made a load of stuff that matches the stuff in the pack.

I'll be honest, I MAY have posted some kind of reply to this thread a loong time ago... but this time I'm going to be thorough about it! And going into it I'll admit, I'm a big Sims fan and you'd be prying ANY of my EP's and SP's from my cold, dead hands...

Favourites:
Pets: People seem to get the hate on for this EP, but nothing about it was ever really glitchy for me... in fact I've NEVER had any major (or really minor) glitch problems with anything. And I LOVE pets! Just having them around adds a great extra element of realism, and although I don't do it all the time, I love breeding them in game.

Seasons: Again another favourite because of the added realism. It always used to bother me how it was ALWAYS a clear sunny day aaalll the time. BORING! Although I wish I could just make the fall skill-building boost last all the time!

IKEA Home Stuff: Tons of very versatile furniture that can be used in sooo many different decors, and if that weren't enough already, lends itself very well to recolours for using in even MORE decors!

Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff: Also a favourite due to versatility, one of the better Maxis packs IMO because it's less "theme-y" and more realistic. And we needed more options for the bathroom sooo badly!

Apartment Life: I find apartments sooo fun (even though I only really have one populated at the moment that I regularly play) so this one is up there! And I'm starting to explore the magic aspect more, it was something I never really bothered with in the Sims 1 but it's fun!

Those would be my favourites but really, I have them all (yes, ALL) and I wouldn't get rid of any of them. I like having so many options and choices in my game!

My favourite EP is University. Seasons comes a close second, and when it comes to stuff packs, I adore Teen Style Stuff. When it comes to least favourites, the Happy Holidays SP is cute but kind of useless, and I don't get much out of Pets.

I'm very gameplay/realism oriented, but at the same time if I had to pick and choose which EPs I'd have to have vs what I could live without, these would be first pick:

-Apartment Life
-University
-Night Life
- Open for Business

The Middle-Men are

-Free Time
-Seasons

And the Last Choices are:

-Bon Voyage
-Pets

I know, I know - How on Earth is Seasons in the middle?? I remember getting Seasons 2 days after it came out, and by the weekend I was bored. It's pretty and all, but it just didn't add any good gameplay. And after an almost 2-year gap of not playing I waited to add Seasons, and I just didn't miss it.

And I mentioned liking realism but BV and Pets are at the bottom? Honestly, BV is only at the bottom because I don't have it anymore and don't miss it either. If my disk wasn't broken I might add it on just because, but it's not worth going out and buying it again. And Pets was like Seasons, only 3x as worse. At least the Seasons didn't go away -- if you didn't have pets, then there was nothing else to do >_<

Which is why I like the top 4 so much - I may not go downtown all the time, but I'm always interacting with downtownies, and there's a million items I use all the time. Same with Uni and OFB. And I'm always using apartments. If not apartments, then townhouses, boarding homes, trailer parks, etc, etc. I love it so ♥

Um, now SPs? Not necessary and all, but I actually have a few, 'cause I bought bundle packs this go 'round. I dunno which I like the best...maybe K&B. Celebrations has definitely raised my expectations for it. H&M is okay. And I use to have FFS and HHS and the only one I'd actually rebuy (cheaply, of course ;D) is HH.

Okay. Now that I have all the expansions I will ever get, I'll add my preferences to this thread.

Number One: Seasons!
I love gardening and fishing.
I love how I can choose which seasons I want for an entire hood. Most of my hoods have at least two fall seasons because it tends to have the mildest weather. My sims can grow and harvest more in the fall. Even though most of my sims have greenhouses, they may have to do without the greenhouse at first. My sims gain their skills faster in the fall. I don't have winter in most of my hoods because I don't like frozen ponds. But I recently have been making indoor ponds so my fisherman can fish at all hours of the day and night for their stores. I have yet to see how this will be in the winter because I only have winter in one hood, I think. In some hoods, it is fall all the time because that is the best for all my sims do.

The one negative I have about Seasons is that they should have had more fruits and vegetables to grow. And fruit that you can eat from the tree or garden without having to put it in the refrigerator or juicer to store. Even lemonade with the real lemons my sims grow would be awesome instead of that stupid lemonade stand that doesn't use the harvested lemons.

I also think there should have been more types of fish, even fishing for big game fish from the ocean when my sims go on vacations.

Number Two: Open for Business

It took me a while to get around to creating my own businesses for my sims. I created a lot of community lots, but having my sims own businesses and make money off each other is awesome. Much better than buying from the catalog and seeing the money my sims earn go poof into some void. I am glad to see what they earn go to the community. I don't complain as much about them buying stuff now.

I used to save their money for the next house because I moved them around all the time. Now I'm trying to move them around less so the saved money can be used for businesses.

I don't like the servos. I like the clean bots and the sentry bots.

Number Three: University

I like sending my sims to Uni. They have fun and they gain friends, skills and start earning serious money they can't earn as much as teens. I also like having the extra want slots without using a cheat. The extra careers and majors are also fun.

The others: I like the cars in Nightlife. My sims don't get to drive them because it takes too long to get them in and going to where ever they are headed. I just like the cc cars I downloaded sitting pretty in the driveway, or garage. I also live the cc mopeds I downloaded for my poor sims and even my Uni sims sometimes.

I hate the vampires.

I got tired of Bon Voyage after a few hours of my first vacation. My sims ask for vacation homes all the time when I am saving for something else. I hate seeing that want. All the available vacation lots are too small, so if my sims want to go on vacation, they just have to wait until I build a new place on a custom hood.

There wasn't much I liked in Glamour Life. If they had more matching stuff, it would have been better. I had to download a lot of stuff to get my houses to not look like crap all the time. Because of that, I never bought another stuff pack.

My Favorites:

1: FreeTime
Good: The hobbies and secondary aspiration are awesome. I also liked playing Desiderata Valley.
Bad: I hate the fugly clothes, and the contests. Just so annoying.
2. Apartment Life
Good: Apartments are freaking fun. Witches are half, the spells are kind of fun.
Bad: Witches are half, the spells ingredients get annoying.
3. Seasons
Good: The seasons are the best, the fishing is fun, PlantSim-ism is fun, gardening is fun to explore, greenhouse roofs for homes are funny when a vampire Sim walks into that room.
Bad: Water balloon fights, freezing/fainting from heat.
4. Nightlife
Good: Dates, attraction, downtown, vampires.
Bad: Fugly furniture

Okay..

1 Nightlife
It come with so much!!! cars, clubs, resaurants, bars, dating, vampires (but are annyoing) the gypsy matchmaker for potions, dancing, singing and DJ, cemetary, the tricou family and their house, dancing sphere, cool booths for eating, dance floors, cool disco lights, turn ons and turn offs, pleasure aspiration, downtown!!! I LOVE this EP!

2 Apartment Life
OMG i love this one too its right next to nightlife...you can have apartments and see your neighbors, WITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPELLS!!!!!, reagnants, good, evil, or neutral, magical world, high witches, HELICOPTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUTLERS!!!!!! stacking shelves, the mysterious booksheleves!!!! the cool roofs!!! i love this EP!

3 University
Zombies even tho they dont do anything, the ressurecting!, the plastic surgery thing, playing through college life which can get boring but you just have to spice it up like get them a girlfriend or make them a witch!, the makeover table, graduating, roomates, the young adult life state, cowplant, camera for art, majors, scholorships!!!!

4 Bon Voyage
Go on vacation to 3 cool places! the spa, hot spring, massage table, HOTELS!!! room service, you can sleep at communtiy lots like its your home, BEACHES!!!! the pirate ship, bigfoot!, purchase a vacation home, and tour guides! you can walk to lots! the cool pagoda roofs and cool vacation themes!

5 Open For Business
Comes with new interactions, make your own business and make money, have people come to your house like your famous, purchase community lots!, SERVOS!!!! hair salon, toy making, robot making, flower arranging, bluewater village! i like the cool costumes and hair...but i dont really make businesses as much.

6 Seasons
Kind of cool i guess... i like ice and roller skating, fishing, the weather and seasons are cool, tempatures, gardening even tho my plants always die, gardening club, trees change color, gift giving, PLANTSIMS!!! snowman, snowball fights, marco polo, water baloons...i dont really do many things except see the weather and make plantsims!

7 FreeTime
Not much...hobbies, secret lots, new objects in the hobbies section, but its annyoing when the phone rings and it asks for magazine subscription or when the hobby leaders come to my house, and when it notifies me "so and so is losing enthusiasm!" but i like the cool outfits and hair, and the GENIE!!! i love making wishes but im mad its just an NPC.

8 Pets
The only thing in this is cats and dogs! no other *PLAYABLE* animals like monkeys or snakes...just birds and womrats...what is a womrat???? the only cool things are the Atomic space theme but theres nothing to do with it just decor, the obediance trainer, and WEREWOLVES! they are OK, but not much to do with werewolves. I never make pets in my families unless they actually DO have pets like if its a real family im making...not much else except pet objects...the intercations are boring and there arent many of them...the pets arent even controllable! haha boolprop controlpets on lol thats it!

and stuff packs:

1 Mansion and Garden
2 Holiday
3 Kitchen and Bath
4 Teen style
5 H & M fashion
6 Glamor Life
7 IKEA home
8 Celebration
9 Family Fun