The Best Expansion Pack: This has to be Seasons! The whole concept of rain, sun, snow, storms, falling leaves, growing plants, etc; makes it so much more real life!

The Best Stuff Pack: [i] A Hard one, but I would have to choose Bathroom and Interior Design due to its gorgeous additions to the furniture catologue as well as some trendy clothing and hairstyles for your sims!

The Worst Expansion Pack: Despite adoring the new 'Young Adult' age category and the whole 'University' idea; I never seem to find it interesting? That may just be me; but I found this pack pretty dull and not particularly addicting - which was the total opposite for the all the other expansions!

The Worst Stuff Pack: Teen Stuff; alright, yes - some of the new things in there are alright but some of the clothes and furniture are so much more for younger children - not teens surely?! I was expecting more 'teen type' clothes - more like the clothes the fabulous creater "Krehata" designs for teens! It was a huge disappointment.


llama llama llama xD

1. Seasons - I have NO idea how i played without this EP! I love the weather, outerwear, and.. pretty much everything! I actually can't remember a lot of the special features, because they just sort of combined in my mind . A lot of the things in Seasons were just features you normally would have expected in the base game, and they are really nice to have. Seasons is a MUST BUY!!

2. Bon Voyage - Another one of my favorites. Your Sims can go on vacation to three different places (I know, THREE. WOW.), and they can do a variety of things there. Visiting hotels is by far much more fun than buying a vacation home, because there are many more nooks and crannies to explore. Your families can go on tours (Although you can't "go with them", the game stays at the hotel until everybody comes back), and they can even go camping! A lot of people didn't like BV, but I personally love it.

3. Freetime - FINALLY, your Sims can have a life! They can now have exciting hobbies, gain enthusiasm, and enjoy the rewards! The only two complaints I have are:

a. Unless you purchase multiple athletic wear outfits, your Sims will not change clothing for different sports. For example, they will *spin* into their athletic wear for a sport, but that may mean they're doing ballet in a tracksuit or soccer in a leotard. This is a very small thing, and it doesn't take away from the fun of the game

b. The. Ballet. Makes. Me. Cringe. If you are a dancer, then you will HATE HATE HATE HATE the ballet. Your Sims truly look like they're peeing on a fire hydrant rather than doing an elegant side battement. (kick). The Freetime ballet is practically telling people "haha, our dancing is horrible! Wanna gain enthusiasm in it?"

I don't have any time to write reviews on the other ones, but I will add another post (with stuff pack reviews too ) as soon as i can (:

uh...no piracy. Just sayin'

I got the Pets compilation because I wanted more building stuff...turns out I like Pets more than I thought I would.

Those tiny little puppies and kittens...! AWWWWW!

Best expansion pack?
Seasons? Free Time? University?

I love them all, but if I have to pick one:
Nightlife. - Vampires rocks. Totally. And cars... and restaurants (err... what is the name of this sub-hood in English version?)

the worst:
Pets. Yes, I love cats and dogs, and I have them in every family, and the furniture is quite good, but compared to other expansion packs I say it is the worst. Maybe the Bon Voyage is also not so extra one, I like the vacation mode and furniture, but have no time to going there. And I hate accesories flashing blue.

Best stuff pack:
1. Kitchen & Bath - I have the stuff from it in every house!
2. IKEA - when the H&M came to stores I think to myself: they must do Ikea! And they done! I have many Ikea objects in my real home, so it's nice to have them in the Sims too.
3. Mansion & Garden - solar batteries for cheaper bills, great hair (braids looks even like non-Maxis! As good as custom one), and very nice flower, build mode things etc. I adore roof with windows...
4. Teen Style stuff - Good sort of clothes for teens as well as nice furniture. Use them very often.

Worst Stuff Pack:
Family Fun. - Yes, I love kid girl pyjamas. My every girl wear it. And kids furniture castle collection is quite good too, but... thats all. I use pyjamas and one toy chest. So that one is the worst.

(in the order I got them)

Nightlife:

Nightlife is my favorite next to Seasons. It's interactions, styles, additions, everything is just wonderful. The only problem I have is the vampires. Don't get me wrong, I love vamps, but honestly, EAxis could have given them some better looks. Vampires look like humans, or in this case Sims, but are paler. Therefor, the vampires should have just had white skin, not crazy-creepy ZOMBIE skin.

Pets:

My opinion on Pets is...mixed. If you want a more realistic game, I'd suggest this game to you. I personally only bought it to shut up my brother. He wanted to make our family in Sims, but since we have pets, he wanted that expansion pack to put them in the game, too. But now he doesn't play the game anymore, and I'm stuck with something I never use and don't want to give away (I'm a pack rat, i'll admit it).

University:

I love it. Simple as that. It adds a whole new aspect to the game (though they should be able to turn into Young Adults even if they don't go to college. I mean, my dad didn't go to college, but he was still young once). It's like having a InTEENimator installed into your game; The Young Adults are just like teens! My favorite part is the fact that if you are not in another person's room, that room looks empty. It's a lot more realistic that way.

Seasons:

Words cannot express how much I love this EP! EVERYTHING about it is awesome! It's waaaay more realistic! If you're debating on buying this one, debate no more! It's worth twice how much you pay for it anywhere! The pre-made families are a little dull, but Seasons isn't limited to Riverblossom Hills, so even your premade families can enjoy the Hail, Sleet and Snow of Winter, and the Heat, Sunburn and Pool-time of Summer!

Oh God, I sounded like a used cars salesman. -hides in shame-

I like the expansions in this order:
1.Nightlife
2.Seasons
3.Bon Voyage
4.University
5.Freetime
6.Apt. Life
7.Open for Business
8.Pets(not very bright :/)

I finally caved and bought Pets and now I'm glad I did. I love being able to combine Pets with OFB and set up pet shops, as well as make and sell custom breeds of cats and dogs. The mall I'm amking in my custom neighbourhood has it's own pet superstore, among other things.

I love Pets, although everything that annoyed me about it I had modded/used hacks. So no strays showing up/digging up my yard, etc... I just really NEED some dogs and cats in my houses, it's weird to have a neighborhood without animals. The womrats and birds however, are just a bottomless pit for feeding that offer practically nothing to the gameplay. It would also be cool to have had turtles, rabbits, iguanas, snakes, tarantulas, hamsters, chinchillas, etc...

Anyway, the best EP is Seasons, because it added so much fun and beautiful stuff to the game. It would be the only EP I wouldn't play without.

1 Nightlife-cars, dating, vampires- awesome!
2 University-zombies, more careers, instruments, longer life spans(thanks to a new age group)
3 Open for Biz- servos rock!
4 Apartment Life- witches, controlling more than one household, cliques
5 Bon Voyage- traveling is a refreshing change for my simmies
I didn't really like seasons, because weather doesn't feel like it's worth twenty dollars

I dont really have orders... Heres what I got:

Nightlife
Im not really sure of whats from it since I got Double Deluxe. From what I know vampires, downtown, chemistry, fun aspiration and cars are from it. Thats really nice and fun ;D

Pets
I love animals. They're even like my passion. But sadly this add-on wasnt that good... it costed more than Double Deluxe ! I dont think its worth it...

University
It's nice. No more no less. It adds something different to the game.

Free Time
This one definetly surprised me ! I was only expecting some lil games but nuuu it added so many stuff ! Its definetly my favorite add It makes your sims really unique and with open for buisness you can do almost everything xD

Seasons
I had a friend to lend it to me but it lagged so much my computer that I couldnt really play...

Open for Buisness
It's really hard = really fun ! I love it It really changes from the normal gameplay. Only con is that its very difficult at the beginning to understand but its easily mastered

Okay, here we go.

FreeTime: The fact that you could gain enthusiasm from doing a particular hobby and going to its respective club was nice, not to mention the amazing variety of buy mode items, but it was the inclusion of a Trainset which made me want to get it.

IKEA Home Stuff: I love IKEA furniture and this SP is no exception. Great variety of items at affordable price, especially for Sims who start off with only 20,000.

H&M Fashion Stuff: I felt that I needed this one initially as I wanted an actual brand store to be placed on Downtown, but was rather disappointed to find out that it focused only on adults and only everyday clothing. Some of the outfits were decent, but I'd be better off downloading. Not bad, but not good either.

Pets: Other than the addition of pets, I find this expansion useless as I haven't made my sims own them. Didn't quite interest me when first released and got it as my little brother requested it, but never bothered since then.

My list of EP's and SP's:
 

Well, I'm gonna list the EP's first. Warning for infinite mass of smileys ahead:

1. Bon Voyage
Words can't just describe how much I love it. It's so wonderful and adorable, especially Takemizu is my favourite

2. University
I seem to be the only one who actually like this EP. In fact, I love it almost as much as Bon Voyage. College was a must-need for Sims, and finally it came :lovestruc

3. Open for Business
Very good, I love to have bakerys or car shops, or why not take control of the downtown lots? Amusing, that is.

4. Apartment Life
Apartments is a really vital point of a realistic world. Finally it arrived, just when I was starting to go desperate.

5. Nightlife
Cars was a must, and also the enhanced dating system and the downtown. Great, I say.

Well, I really loved that five EP's, but the other three I nearly hated. It really was a big gap there.

6. Pets
I love cats. Well, that's it. Not many new options, and nearly no new interactions either. Bad.

7. FreeTime
I bought it just to get the car (the one you can build, I did'nt own Nightlife at the time) and the Soccer goal. Nothing else good there.

8. Seasons
Bleh. Nothing's right with this EP except the seasons. Also I hate plantsims, they're scary.

And now the SP's (i'm not entirely sure of the english names, sorry):

1. Glamour Life Stuff
Great, I like the things that came with this SP.

2. Mansion & Garden Stuff
Nearly as good as Glamour Life. I love Mansions.

3. Teenage Stuff
This one is also good.

4. IKEA Stuff
IKEA is awesome. Really.

5. Family Fun Stuff
Oh no. I can definitely live without this rubbish piece of shit.

Don't have the rest of the SP's, but here I list them how I think they are (and possibly in what order I will buy them):

1. Kitchen & Bath Stuff
I love Bathrooms. Can be good with some more stuff for that.

2. Celebration Stuff
Great. Not sure if I will use it that much, but it looks interesting, definitely.

3. H&M Stuff
Seriously, WTF? Maybe it will be the only SP ever I will not buy. I don't pay for rubbish commercials. And i don't care about clothes, really.

1.) Seasons- I LOVE this Ep. I love gardening, fishing, setting up the seasons so its not all sunny every single day. Plus it came with outerwear and the ability to change hairstyles per outfit! (Which is awesome, no longer my sims who wear hats wear them with formal and look stupid)

2.) Nightlife- This pack came with a bunch of stuff. Cars, downtowns, restruants, vampires, matchmakers, dating.

3.) Apartment Life- I love the witches. And the apartments add to the realistic feel.

4.) Pets- I like how my sims can now own animals. The downsides are the wandering strays that dig random holes in my yard and they won't stop.

5.) University- The Unis are boring. Its tedious to play from freshman to senior. I never send my teens to uni. I only like this one for the stuff, otherwise I'd uninstall it.

And the only stuff pack I own is celebration, so I'm not ranking stuff packs.

Well, I am one of those people who don't actually play the game....I just build...actually, the first time I'd ever played was when I uploaded my first lot to mts...because I had to play test it...lol.
I have so many ep's and sp's that I don't really know what came in what....What I can tell you is "pets" can go suck it. It caused nothing but issues when I first installed it....and after I did install it, I really only used it for my pet store lots. The "stuff" that comes with it is pointless..for me anyway...exept the fish tanks and bird cages...they look beautiful in lots.
"Open for buisness" and "Apartment life" WONDERFULL. As only a builder...this added SOOO much to my game, not only a whole whack of extra stuff, but a whole new category to build in!!!.

I still don't have mansion and garden stuff...but that one is next on my list. I just hate how everytime I add a "pack", it messes up my game for some reason. I'm not down with uninstall reinstall AT ALL. lol

Seasons: Well I like the outfits, they're cute, but I could do without the storms. They're disturbing my sims, and cuts the power off.

Hi everyone!

Well, I just can't decide whether to buy Seasons or not. On the plus side new visuals, careers with cool rewards. fishing and farming for my freelancing sims (novels, painting and DIY cars are all fine, but...)

On the minus side, so far I've managed to find most of the EPs at bargain prices, but Seasons are still a bit on the expensive side right now for me, and I've read a bit too much horror stories about Temperature meter, lightning strikes, etc...

(My most favorite EPs were FT (Lifetime rewards, secret clubs and revamped novel writing.) and NL (Dates&cars) ) My least favorite were AL (until I've found anti-witch hack. No more random cockroaches on business lots!) and FT (:D) (because of all the spam, although with patch and new phone options it's just mildly irritating. And I don't own nor i ever plan to buy Pets, the idea just somehow doesn't appeal to me. )

My favourite EPs (In no particular order)
Freetime- I <3 the toddler drawing table, hobbies are a great way of adding personality to a Sim and a good way to take up time between jobs/school. The kitchen set that came with the EP I now put in 95% of my Sims houses and I love the outfits that came with the pack too. The only bad thing that the hobby club people can get a little annoying, and Mr Humble too.. I would miss this EP a lot if I uninstalled it though.

Apartment Life- Ceilings! It was annoying seeing the sky from the first story of a 2 story house! I really like playing apartments too, since you can have multiple families on 1 lot without so much lag. I do wish they were less restricting though.

Seasons- I <3 the pool effects and seasons. The leftover feature is useful as well, and it comes with some cute furniture. Riverblossom Hills keeps resetting itself though

Nightlife- How do I love Nightlife? Let me count the ways. Vampires and cars and vampires and downtown and vampires and the loading screen music and did I mention vampires?

Least favourite:
I don't think I have a least favourite one! I <3 them all.

I love all the stuff packs as well, but especially Family Fun Stuff, IKEA Home Stuff, Kitchen & Bathroom Stuff and Mansion & Garden Stuff. ^-^

I can't decide on whether to buy OFB, Bon Voyage or Freetime. D:

Seasons:
Pros: Weather; must I say more? The Wishing Well is a nice addition, too. like how more child-parent interactions are available (building a snowman brings back memories) Hot chocolate and leftovers; :'D
Cons: CRUMPLEBOTTOM HAS MORE INFLUENCE! D:< Trees randomly catch fire, hail during the summer, seasons too short, and not very good items added.
Outcome: 7/10

Pets:
Pros: Great for completing your families. :D
Cons: Fugly animals, lack of options, craptastic items, and the glitches! I adopted a kid and she came as a DOG! WTH?!
Outcome: 3/10

Nightlife:
Pros: Hot Date Memories have been resurrected. Clubs, bars, beds in the mall, must I say MORE? :D
Cons: CRUMPLEBOTTOM HAS RETURNED! D:< Fugly hair+Fugly Clothes=Fugly Sims. 'nuff said.
Outcome: 6/10

Celebration! Stuff:
Pros: Some of the hair is kinda cute.
Cons: Everything else.
Outcome: 1/10

Just my opinions. >.> The Stuff Packs aren't worth it.

Free Time is fun, but a lot of people have complained about the annoying pop ups (personally, they don't bother me.)

OFB is fun if you like to own businesses and don't like that a sim's money comes "from nowhere," so to speak.

Bon Voyage was just okay. Beach Lots are fun, but can be killer on a slower machine (which is a shame, because all that Bon Voyage added for me was Beach Lots.)

It depends on what you like more, really.

I do like Bon Voyage but it is not something you use everyday, it's a vacation. You don't go on a vacation every day. It can be a bit laggy and playing anything more than a 3 night vacation is mind numbing. That said I still like the EP and where would my Sims go for their honeymoon without it?

I personally just got OFB for the longest time I didn't think it would interest me. I play this game to get away from business why would I want to stress out about my Sims running one? I have to say I was wrong. The EP is loads of fun and I'm throughly enjoying it. Not so hard to make you quit using it but it is challenging. If I ever get around to it I'm sure I will enjoy the Servo's.

Don't have Freetime, can't get it as I'm a Mac user but it does sound interesting to me as I like hobbies.

Only thing I've bought that I regretted was the Happy Holidays stuff pack. What a bunch of worthless garbage that was, I don't know what I was thinking.

So far, my favorite EP is University. Or maybe it doesn't count because that's the only EP I have

My favorite is probably University or Open For Business, while my least favorite would probably have to be 'Bon Voyage'.

- CandinFat(:

Now that I have nearly all the EPs and SPs, I can weigh in a bit more:

EPs

Nightlife: Drivable cars are great, especially Fresh-Prince's wicked-awesome CC jobs. Love the Merc roadsters and the Audi RSQ. Downtown is very useful as well and practically vital for the Homeless Challenge. Dates can be hilarious if done right: I had a couple go on a romp through the hedge maze and woohoo in the photo booth with other Sims stood outside and cheered them on. That old bat Crumplebottom is the pits. If I could kill her without completely wrecking the game, I would.

University: Most folks find Uni boring, but I like it. The study sessions, the streakers, the random couplings - all part of campus life. And the mascots! I've had some of my more mischievous Sims team up with the cow and wreak havoc. Favourite part: Making custom dorms and student centres, that's always fun. Least favourite: That damned school cheer was fun the first few times, but now it gets on my nerves.

Seasons: I love the penguin. Plantsims are amazing and gardening and fishing are fun too. Also, getting toddlers to eat snow is hilariously adorable.

Open For Business: After having run my first business, I want to do it again. The business was part of my Sim Builders Challenge and was just a video arcade/pool hall with karaoke. I got it all the way up to Rank 6 before I closed it down and demolished it. I hate how the badges take forever, though and the banging sound from the robot station is really, really annoying. The robots are kind of cool though.

Pets: I like this EP, so sue me. The retro-future furnishings are nice and the pets are fun to train. (Try teaching a dog or cat to play dead, it's hysterical!) I don't like the strays though. Chasing them off and filling in the holes is my preferred approach, unless the animal in question is particularly cute.

Bon Voyage: I don't have this one and don't plan to get it. From what I hear it's horribly borked beyond saving, besides, my Sims have enough to do with their time without going on holiday.

FreeTime: I like just about everything about this EP except for the notification spam and the hobby reps going in and out at their leisure. More ways to make money, more ways to build skills, more games to play and of course, the free computer.

Apartment Life: This ties with OFB as my favourite EP. Helicopters. Witches (though the evil ones annoy me). Spiral staircases. Ceilings. And my favourite part, the swiveling bookcase. Totally inspired, that one.

SPs
Celebration: Very useful for all those special occasions. Mmmmmm, cake.

Family Fun: Lives up to its name. I like the colourful themed decorations for medieval, racing or undersea bedrooms. Goes well with the kids' space stuff from Pets.

Glamour Life: Not quite as girly as some may think. There's stuff for the men as well, most of it in the Formal category. Sharp business suits, smoking jackets, tuxedos and fur-lined overcoats. Some nice hats as well.

Kitchen and Bath: My Sims' bathrooms and kitchens have never looked better, especially when the K&B stuff is augmented with buggybooz's kitchen and dining accessories.

IKEA: I know many of you out there might be offended by the idea of paying for product placement, but I like the clean modern shapes and simplicity of the IKEA furniture and decor.

Mansion and Garden: Basically a companion to Apartment Life. It's come in handy more than once when I'm looking to swank up a tired mansion or build les immeubles bohémes parisiennes.

Holiday: Don't have. I don't even celebrate Christmas, so it's pretty much useless to me. If they'd put in stuff associated with other holidays as well then I MIGHT consider it. But they definitely dropped the ball on that one. Way to leave out other religions, EA.

Teen Style: Been debating to myself whether or not to get this one, since my teens have a lot of stuff anyway.

H&M: Don't have. I'm not really familiar with the brand and besides, I've seen some news articles about the company that give me pause.

Couldn't agree with you more! I've done ballet for a total of 8 years, and jeez luis, it did make me cringe. I had a sim with top enthusiasm in arts + dance and max dancing skill...and he had terrible form! Grah! The only cool thing was I posted about it on my facebook and my dancer friends laughed with me.

Could you guys help me out? I'm stuck between if I should get Seasons or Bon Voyage. Which do you guys prefer?

I think Seasons is much better than Bon Voyage because of fishing and gardening. I also like the weather effects that comes with Seasons, as long as you take care to apply all available patches. There are also some mods that help make the Seasons features more enjoyable/less annoying. I think my game would be very different without Seasons because the gardening and fishing are activities that most of my sims participate in. I have them drinking juice day and night.

It took me a long time before I sent my sims on a BV vacation. The novelty wore off quite quickly. When I started a new hood earlier in the year, I didn't bother to assign a vacation destination for my sims and haven't felt a desire to send my sims on vacation. Although they still roll wants to buy a vacation home too frequently. I haven't yet given in so none of my sims in my custom hood have bought a vacation home even though many can afford it.

Thanks for your help. I have been going towards getting Seasons more than Bon Voyage anyways so I think I'll be getting Seasons in exchange for The Sims 3. That game was a let-down.

I only have nightlife and pets, so...

My fave would be Apartment life (witches and spells, yay)

and
(University does sound like a great game but the cow)
I guess University because of that stupid stinkin cow I heard so much about.

uni: maxmotives! I dunno if it was added to the other games aswell, but maxmotives i could not live without. not to mention that sprinkler! no more annoying fire alarms.

NL: veryy good. has a lot to offer. CARS! dating! (did it bring restaurants too,right?) for those of us who loved going out! the cars are so much fun.you can just sit in them and listen to music, haha!

open for business: still getting around this one. fair enough.nothing you need i'd say.

pets: if you like animals, go for it. my simself needed pets, so yay. but i wish there was tons more interactions between pets and simmies, and that they could have huuuge dogs aswell.

seasons: the weather is awesome. i guess this is a must. i was amazed by the graphics when i got it.

BV: i always wanted a beach house,digging around in the sand, bathing. if you like that too, then go for it!

al: having apartments is wicked, but idk? nothing you'd need i guess. BUT it brings CEILINGS. finally. main reason i got it i think.

with the stuff packs, i bought the holiday pack, cause heyy i cant have winter without christmas.

^ no maxmotives came with nightlife and yeah resturants came with nightlife. but I agree with you

Okay, I'm leaning towards getting Sims 2, and I want some advice on what EP(s) I'll get. Of course this will also be determined by what they have in the store as well :P, but I got to have a game plan anyway

Okay, so what are the pros and cons of getting Double Deluxe? I'm unsure if I want Nightlife, but it's on the list of ones that I want anyway. And can somebody post a link/show pics of what the stuff is in the Celebration thing?

And I want Seasons (badly), but am worried that because it's a very popular EP, it's going to be expensive. (if you're going to quote prices, tell me where you're from, since Cdn prices are different then US prices) I would rather have two cheaper EPs to start with (I think) :/

And I really like the idea of Open for Business, but it's gotten mixed reviews...I shouldn't base everything on reviews, but I'm just so unsure of what I want here :P

Also, I might get either AL or FT, definitely not both though. I'm leaning towards FT, but am unsure. Magical creature or hobbies, I'm not sure :P

EDIT: Sorry about the rambling above
I got Seasons and AL (but NO base game, dumb Best Buy), can't wait to try them out!

Open for business - finally, you can do something in the community lot!
University - I don't know, I just like it.

Freetime - I don't say, that I don't like it, but i don't see anything interesting...

My daughter noticed something yesterday and pointed it out and I had to acknowledge that she's right...I like all of my EPs and SPs, but I go through periods where I'll favor different one's depending on different factors such as mood, what I'm interested in at the time (that changes every so often), etc. I guess this is why, when my daughter-in-law was asking me about some of the EPs and SPs I couldn't tell her what to get, I just told her what each one had to offer and what the theme was so she could decide. What it comes down to is that each one adds something cool to the game that makes the game more fun and gives sims more options. I love them all!

I agree. Although Uni is a very great and excellently planned EP, I hardly ever play it because I usually don't play "normal" gameplay. Same with Pets. If I were really into the having pets and training them and breeding them, then I would probably like it more, but to me the only thing Pets brought was annoying strays.

What is your most favourite/least favourite expansion pack, and why?
What is your most favourite/least favourite stuff pack, and why?
If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be?
If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?

My most favorite expansion would be Free Time. I played TS2 for years on my old computer and couldn't install anymore expansions past Seasons, so now that I have a new one, I bought the rest of the expansions, so Free Time is very new to me. I absolutely love that my sims can have hobbies and I love all the new clothes that came with Free Time.

My favorite stuff pack is probably H&M Stuff because of the great clothes.

My rankings of each expansion......

1. Free Time
2. Apartment Life (I hope they come out with something like this for TS3)
3. Seasons
4. Bon Voyage
5. Night Life
6. Pets
7. University
8. OFB

If I had to get rid of one it would probably be OFB because I never really enjoyed running the businesses.

What is your most favourite/least favourite expansion pack, and why?
What is your most favourite/least favourite stuff pack, and why?
If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be?
If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?

Okay, I have Seasons, Bon Voyage, Nightlife, Pets, and University. I wouldn't have any stuff packs except Celebration (which barely comes with anything) came with Doouble Deluxe. My favorite EP so far would have to be Nightlife because I seriously would have no community lots if not for this. Plus it comes with turn-ons, turn-offs, and the pleasure aspiration (which I hate, but it adds variety!). My least favorite EP is Bon Voyage, because whenever I send them on the vacation, I'm too obsessed with trying to fill up vacation memories to do things I consider fun. And I also hate "go on vacation" wants. My least favorite EP would be Uni, but it became more fun after a downloaded a mod to make every semester 36 hours instead of 72.

Ranking:

1. Nightlife
2. Seasons
3. Pets
4. University
5. Bon Voyage

If I had to uninstall an EP, I'd choose...Pets, because even though I like it better than BV and my cats are awesome, I don't have any CC that requires it while I do have BV-dependent CC. I want OFB next because I really want Servos. It's funny, actually. My main reason for wanting Seasons was Plantsims, but I haven't ever gotten a single one nor do I have the desire to, anymore.

Best: Apartment Life
Worst: Nightlife

Seasons is definitely one of the best as well, but apartments is just too cool

Favorite/Least favorite Stuff Pack
 

Since HystericalParoxysm uploaded a thread of asking about favorite expansion packs, I wanted to share with you, guys, what stuff pack i like/don't like most... :D
(I writed all stuff packs from first place to second and etc.)
1.Kitchen & Bath Love from the first sight... Well, maybe from the second sight... xD I love furniture, all designs, well, that's just my hobbie, decorating those kitchens and bathrooms...
2.Family Fun I thought, what in second place? Family Fun or IKEA? Well, I chose family fun. Like those kids' styles, expecially girls' PJs. :lovestruc :lovestruc
3.IKEA home stuff You can find every type of furniture in here (well, almost) and they're modern and nicely done...
(as you can see, i like furniture and decorating, so many stuff packs which are furniture specific)
4.Mansion & Garden Simple: decorations and building equiment (and staircases)
5.Glamour life nothing special in here, put it in the middle, cause it's cold/hot for me...
6.Celebration Stuff I don't party with my sims a lot, so don't see anything interesting in this pack...
7.H & M Well, stuff pack for clothes specific (almost) isn't for me.. But the thing I like in here is catwalk...
8.Happy Holiday These things in this stuff should be putted in seasons...
9.Teen Style I don't have this pack and I actually never was looking foward to it...
Keep in mind that it was MY opinion! Don't blame it... Like I said, I'm interested in decorating and interior designing Share your opinion with me...

Pretty sure that thread covers Stuff Packs, too, since people were posting about Stuff Packs in that thread as well

I like Mansion & Garden Stuff, though. and Ikea.

I'll wait for your thread to be merged with the sticky and then I'll tell you.

My favorite stuff packs is Teen style and Mansion & Garden come with teen's clothes and also fan
my least favorite stuff is H&M,i have many reasons to explain i hate H&M.

I like all of them... I find The Sims 2 better than TS3 at the moment... Maybe because I don't have the time - and the money - to buy WA, Ambitions and High End Lot stuff.

My Opinion on EPs:

I have the Sims 2 installed on an older computer so I am very wary of overloading it. I've had the base game for years, but recently purchased my first and only EP: Apartment Life.

Best purchase I ever made.

If you only have the base game, Apartment life gives you all the improved gameplay fixes of the older expansions, including:
-Influence -- Coerce friends, family and strangers to cook, clean and garden!
-Sims Inventory -- Never again lose your aspiration items just because you've moved to another lot.
-Turn ons/offs -- Sims have been chemistry with certain people, often making relationship growth A LOT easier!
-Walk to Work/School -- Missing your ride by two minutes no longer means a loss of grades, money and job performance. Total lifesaver!
-Leftovers -- I can't live without them! Serve a big meal and then put the leftovers in the fridge. Avoid food waste, eat yesterday's dinner for breakfast, and, best of all, kids can help themselves to meals without needing a parent to wait on them.

As for the new things that come with the pack, well, I've got very few complaints. Some high points:
-Cheaper start up -- A fresh new family can move into a decent sized apartment and fill it with high end toys (imagine buying a piano straight out of CAS with no cheats!) for the price of a starter home. Plus, the game now takes family size into account when doling out starter funds. A new family with a lot of sims starts out with a reasonable amount of cash rather than a measly 20,000 simoleons.
-Shared lots -- Lots of families can occupy the same building, making it easy to meet new people and make friends. Also, your neighbors can babysit. No more nanny issues!
-Butlers -- A maid, a gardener and nanny in one! Plus he'll answer the door for deliveries and visitors.
-Reputation and Networking -- Make a good impression and your Sims can be awarded things like pay raises and big screen TVs.
-MAGIC! -- Every family could use a good witch or wizard to boost moods, make magic items and even conjure up servants to clean! Evil witches are a little less useful (mostly they just make messes and ruin relationships), but they can bring Sims back from the grave, meaning you can have ZOMBIES without the University EP!

My only real complaint is that the families packaged with the game are strangely ugly (what's up with the needle noses?) and buggy to boot. Beware of trying to marry/join certain Sims. Plus, there is a lot of townie spawning to generate neighbors and roommates. Nothing that some deleting, cleaning and modding (well, downloading someone else's mods) can't fix.

My Question About EPs:

Now, I have been working hard to optimize my computer and think it can stand another EP. I'm torn between Seasons, Night Life and Free Time.

Which is the biggest asset to gameplay? Seasonal interactions, the dating/outing system or hobbies? I know it's a matter of opinion. Give me yours.

Also, I haven't really researched but can the Seasons effects cause very bad lag? My computer doesn't handle graphics well.

Just wanted to warn you, first of all, please don't delete Sims, snowietig. It'll mess up your game completely.
Now to answer your Question.
I think for Seasons, it's one thing that once you get it, you can't really live without it. I cringe at going back to endless sunny days.
Dating/outing, I don't know. I almost never use Outings, they take way too long to organize (at least for me) and keep track of everyone. Dating is okay, but most of the time I just have Sims go on "informal" dates. Dates and outings have timers, which is really annoying IMHO. Also in NL is cars. But honestly if you have AL, you get to walk! WAY, way, more convenient (and cheap) than having to build a driveway/garage, install an alarm in the car, etc. I almost never use cars - walking is too convenient.
Hobbies. I've only had FT for a while now, but to me, they're honestly something I can live without. I like the Secondary Aspirations and aspiration benefits, but the random people walking in the house all the time and spamming the upper right corner of the screen endlessly is... well, annoying. Hobbies, to me, are like overrated skill points, that are just connected to more things. (Who knew that simply eating got enthusiasm in Cuisine?)

Honestly, I think SSNs is the best of the three, for gameplay. I don't know about lag either, but I do know that you can turn off snow ingame. If you want to get Seasons, I would see if you can get a mod or something that turns off those effects. (I know I've seen one here that turns off the flashes of lightning.)

I have most EPs/SPs, save Pets, Bon Voyage, Family Fun, Celebration, Holidays, and H&M.
I can't live without Nightlife, Seasons, Freetime, or Apartment Life. (the ones I started out with before a HUGE shopping spree for the rest)
My favorite parts to them:
Leftovers (SSN)-great function for families on a budget. Food doesn't go bad, and you can keep on reusing the leftovers.
Spiral Stairs(AL)- great spacesaver. Not the greatest selection (recolors can be found here and elsewhere though).
Grow-up with friends (FT) - though I've never used this one, it's good to have friends your age. That goes without saying.
Hobbies (FT) - I won't go into specifics, but there are definitely a lot more things to do in a Sim's lifetime as opposed to watching TV or having a million affairs.
Downtown (NL)- awesome if you're too lazy to make your own restaurants, parks, etc. (like moi) Lot's of options.
new jobs (numerous EPs) - though there are a good number of jobs with BG, variety is always good.
Dating (NL) - fun little minigame for your amorous simmies. If I didn't have it in my game I'd be pretty bored/bummed.
Stages (OFB/SSN) halfwalls (NL)- great for variegated rooms and houses. No longer do you have to make your own of either through cheats.
IKEA objects (Ikea...duh) - awesome! moderately priced, so your stingy or financially challenged sims can still afford stylish accoutrement without breaking the bank.
KAB objects (kitchen and bath stuff) - a much needed up-do for the limited selection of kitchen and bath related objects and decorations.
Fun AF formals (GLS) - amazing variety, hardly see myself seeing the same dress/color twice. Definite improvement to the formal selection.

I have all the games and now that they are all in, I can't tell which is which. It seems to me like they all work together to form a very well rounded game. I love going on dates (Nightlife, I think). And fishing is fun (Seasons). I hate it when it rains; it seems like it rains all the time, and I don't like it when the Sims put their hands to their heads when they walk outside. (AL maybe). I did without Teen Style for a long time, but now that you cannot buy the EP's/SP's by themselves, I am very glad I bought it, just to round out the collection. Working on cars is fun (Freetime), but all the beautiful things that Bon Voyage and Mansion & Garden added was worth getting those...in short, I can't tell you which one is the best! I LOVE THEM ALL!!! GET THEM ALL!!! And the best part about having all of them is the CC! I don't have to worry about not being able to download something because I am without the EP or SP it needs.

Ask for them for your birthdays, Christmas, graduation, Valentine's Day. Work harder on saving up for them, babysit more, add some shifts...do whatever it takes, but get them all before they are gone! That is my advice. =)

--------------------------------
"...Gerbits, gerbits, gerrrrrbits!"

Thanks for the tip! I did a little research and am relieved to have finally been told. No deleting ever!

And thank you for the advice on Seasons! If it weren't for this board I would never have even considered it! Now I'm pretty sure I'm going to get it.

Good call...personally I think Seasons should have been their first EP. I love all of the EPs, but Seasons is the one that I think added the most to the game IMHO.

I LOVE Bon Voyage. It was actually one of the last I got because I was never bothered about vacations and thought I'd not like them. I only bought it because I wanted all the eps. But it's now my favourite - I love the beach lots, holiday mementos, and just the whole vacation aspect. I think it makes my families bond and gives them a bit more personality, especially with the photos of them posing that I can put around their houses! Maybe I like it so much because it was surprisingly great, though.

There isn't any I hate really, but I guess I'm not too crazy about nightlife. I know this is a LOT different to what most other simmers think, but whilst I liked the dating aspect of the game I found I never used it that much. I also found the downtown pretty useless as I usually have a 'community area' in all my neighbourhoods.

Ranking favourite to least favourite:
Bon Voyage
Apartment Life
Pets
Seasons
University
FreeTime
Open For Business
Nightlife

I do love all of them, though. I'd probably have ranked Seasons, Pets and Uni alongside each other if I could.

Oh, and I tried the H&M stuff sp. I liked it as I found I could delete custom content because of the clothes it added! But I could live without it. Family fun stuff's alright too, but didn't add much to my game if I'm honest.

Bon Voyage is a "I didn't know i need it until i see it" EPack.

But my favourite EP is still Nightlife and Apartment Life.
It adds so MUCH realism to my game =)

But if i listed it, it could be:

1) Nightlife
The only thing i like Nightlife is the cars and restaurants. =D

2) Apartment Life
I can finally visit neigbours!! =D

3) Seasons
The Seasons, Weathers ROCKS!

How much will my CC affect Seasons?

I have Insim, Inteen, Mods from Sexysims2, and Ataveras instrument hack and rebecahs horses and TONS of custom clothing.

I have all the EPs and SPs now, and I'd be hard put to it to pick a favourite, but it would probably be either Seasons or AL. After all, so many folk live in apartments that it MUST make things more realistic, and I love the gardening and fishing aspects of Seasons. (By the way, I also love the additional flowers and shrubs in Mansion & Garden - at last the gardens are as good as Sims1!) I have loads and loads of CC, including hacked stuff, and I haven't had problems with anything except PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, and that came right when I downloaded the correct one for AL. Oh, and some of the colours went funny on individual CC objects, but nothing catastrophic - I weeded them out through trial and error. So, in general - no problems!

Decisions, decisions...
 

My favorites, on no particular order:

Mansion and Garden Stuff. I was finally able to rebuild the Goth house with all the Second Empire touches it deserved. (To be honest, building is and always was my favorite part of the game.)

EDIT: Seasons! This is a perfect complement to M&G, and adds some really useful features. Not to mention gardens and greenhouses.

Nightlife. Huzzah! Cars! Now I can build a garage! No, seriously, the idea of building a garage thrilled me.

Bon Voyage. I can finally build on the beach! And get some of my sims the tan they desperately need.

Apartment Life. The only one I love for the purely social actions it offered...no more phone calls to someone across town when my brainless sims feel lonely. Oh, and elevators for that highrise I wanted to put up downtown. And CLOSETS!

Open for Business. At last, a way to craft items, and see how well my Sims do at running a business. Plus some really useful architectural stuff.

Family Fun Stuff. It would have been nice to have a volleyball net like in Sims 1. And a train set for the little kids.

The one that would have been better if they had just released the new items in "stuff packs":

University. About the only thing I found useful in there were the musical instruments and a few other doo-dads. The grind to get a degree is boring in the extreme, and the mascots usually die in "accidental" fires as soon as they appear.

My least favorite is Pets.

Yawn. You adopt them, they wreck your furniture and crap on the carpet, dig holes in the lawn, and sooner or later get sick and die. Even their jobs are less than inspired, and add nothing to gameplay, aside from more income for your family, which they need to replace everything the damned long-legged, fur-bearing crap machines destroy.

I like freetime. I do so much with the hobbies, it is crazy. I DID not like open for business.... I don't think the booklet explained enough how to work it and it is far too confusing, I don't think I've used ANY of its features really. and I have been playing for years.

I typically don't bother around with stuff packs unless I hear really good things about them, simply because my downloads folder is like gigs upon gigs of custom content.

But anyway, as a Mac user I'm at loss of many stuff packs and two expansion packs, Apartment Life and Freetime, which bums me out a bit because I've hard good things about Apartment Life and Freetime just seems fun -- haha.

But anyway, I do own all the expansion packs that are available for Mac users and here's how I rank them.

Seasons
-- I like the weather aspect of it, but I guess I really like the country furniture as well. I tried to base which expansion packs I like the best on how often I use content from them. But yeah seasons is definitely fun. My sims all have gardens and greenhouses

Open for Business
-- It seems like I've heard so many people say that it was confusing but I understood it right away. Maybe it's because I'm a fast learner, but I never saw anything extremely confusing. I like that you can have home businesses (This also ties in with seasons because I always have plantsims run the business -- as they never really get tired. Haha)
I also like that you can have businesses outside of the home, but regardless I really like it.

Bon Voyage
-- Although I don't take many vacations because... well there's only three places to choose from whenever I DO take them though I always have fun, as do my Sims.
It adds a nice realism factor and I like that you can buy vacation homes. Very nice feature, imo.

University
-- I typically have all my kids go to college when they have like a day left until they're an adult simply because they meet so many people (great for popularity sims) as well as gain a lot of skills. But I admit -- until I had the 48 hour semester mod it was hard to play and not get extremely bored.

Nightlife
-- I don't use much in Nightlife. Well... I take that back. I do like the blind date feature but otherwise I don't go downtown much or really use cars. Seems as if my sims always walk. Haha.
But if I had to pick out my two favourite things from it, they'd be dates and vampires.

Pets
-- Although pets adds that realistic factor of having a pet into the game sometimes pets are just annoying. I've lost so many sofas while at work to the dumb dogs. But I do like the parrots!

I need some Buying advice. I have Basegame,Uni,Nightlife,OFB and Seasons, I want to get one more EP since I am starting to hit a slump in game interest. Which game would you get for a system that is almost a year old, running Windows 7: Free Time,Apartment life or, BV? And is it worth the Securom risk to get any of those three? Thank you for your time.

Depends on what floats your boat. Personally, #1 Apartment Life, #2 Freetime and #3 Bon Voyage, but that would just be my order of preference.

I finally caved and bought Bon Voyage. I now have all Sims 2 EPs.... and absolutely no shame.

In my opinion the best combination is:
University (Ofcourse with the 'Students stay at home' mod.. I hate collage ) + Apartments♥ + Business.
With this combination you can do tons of things. really.

Ofcourse the other EPs are making the game richer and richer, but IMO these are the essentials.

Wow, good for you! I think I liked BV the best when I first bought it. It was so fun to send my sims on vacations and have them become world-travelers! Now I play more of a scifi game, though.

I own all the EPs except Freetime because IO'm not sure if it would even be worth it... is it?
But my favorite are...
APARTMENT LIFE.
I adore having my romance story being able to progress so much faster because I can simply knock on a door. I love the stuff, actions, hair and everything that comes with it. I love the fold away bed and secret bookcase. I like having butlers and just apartmens period.
SEASONS
I can't even imagine my game with out all of the wonderfully amazing things seasons brings to the game. I think Seasons should just be mandatory with a the Sims 2 game purchase. It just is what makes the game that much more life like.
BON VOYAGE
I loved this at first but after a while I grew restless of the same vaction spots and the exact same 5 wants for every lolt on every vaction spot for every sim and every single time. Ugh.
I do love the beach though.. however downloading CC beach lots are a pain.
UNI
I like it and all but its a pain when I don't make them go and they bug me about it for the rest of their sim lifes.
OFB
I don't really like this one because I feel like I have to devote every second of that familys time to their busniess otherwise it fails. But it is fun when I get into it.
NIGHTLIFE
I love cars and all the great new actions we get in this EP
PETS
Ugh. They annoy me. Sure its cute sometimes but the dogs that keep coming over and destroying my yard make me want to scream.
(:

I agree. Favorite thing about BV, hands down, is the beach lots! I use them all the time. My game would be boring without the beach.

I have decided I am down to BV and Apartment Life, So I can't decide between the two. Anyway my favorite to least favorite EPs are in order
Seasons:As said above, I can't imagine the game without snow,Fishing, and watching sims get nailed in the face by the baseball.
Nightlife:Love the cars and the Vamps
OFB:Like the Business side, the furniture and new outfits
Uni:It gets annoying after awhile though, having to visit the college.

Between BV and Apartment Life, I would go with Apartment Life (but that's just me )...I don't use BV very often (vacations are a special occasion in my game), but I have apartments all over the place...they add a sense of completeness to my game. However, if you feel that your sims want to party like rockstars and take alot of vacations, you may want BV instead. Good luck!

LOL...and I thought I was the only one who did that sort of thing. Happy simming!

Down to BV, after looking at some of the bugs of AL, but then again, not sure about BV either, I mean about the risk of Securom.

BV has more major bugs than AL, I think. (Like the critical shuttle-leaving-without-family issue.) Plus, there's patches and fixes for just about everything. You decide.

I don't have the bug issues some people complain about (and I have every EP and SP for Sims 2)...just make sure you get the patches for the EPs you install. BV was waaay more buggy than AL without the patch. But the patches definitely help!

Edit: Kailacat is fast!

Thanks for the advice guys, it is really welcome.

I could not sleep until I had all the EPs and SPs. I kept thinking, "If I can do this, I wonder what I will be able to do with more." It nagged at me and nagged at me until I finally got them all.

Now, I do the same thing with CC!!! Ok, I'm a bit obsessed. But I love it!!

I caved in as well and Got Free time...I have only been playing it a few hours..but I LOVE The Hobbies. espicially the Train table.

I can't pick a favorite EP, I love them all! I'll tell you my favorite and least favorite aspects of each so you can make a decision (if you're looking at this thread to purchase)

Bon Voyage- Pros: I love the beach vacations! It's really fun to get away from the normal everyday sim stuff and take them on vacation. I love that they can get tan, dig for seashells, buy jewelry, souveniers, swim in the ocean, stay in the hotels! I never thought sims staying in hotels would be so much fun! Room service on the balcony! Makes me wish I were on vacation LOL Cons: slowed down my game A LOT when I installed it. The camping vacation is pretty boring, haven't played the Asian vacay yet. I never stay at the vacation for the whole 3 days.

Pets - Pros: The pets are pretty cute. I like having puppies. The parrots are nice, too. Cons: The strays! Ugh! They are so annoying! They dig holes in your yard and if you pet them they come in and destroy your furniture! They should have made more types of pets. This would be my least favorite EP. There's just not that much to it. Although, it's the favorite of my daughters who is an animal lover.

Seasons - Pros: Everything! Leftovers, fishing, gardening, thunderstorms, snow, snowmen, the country-themed decor, outerwear, Riverblossom Hills... I love this EP the best! Cons: Nothing! Sometimes the rain/snow make my game lag a bit.

University - This is the most recent EP that I purchased. I don't know why I waited so long. Pros: cell phones, pool tables, cow plant, resurect machine, plastic surgery machine... love it! I haven't used the actual university aspect of it but my daughter has and she loves it! Cons: None that I can think of just yet, but I haven't played it very long.

Open For Business - Pros: Running a business can be fun, going to the salons, sims can really go shopping, the shopping district brings more comm. lots, I love a lot of the decor. Cons: It's like a whole other game. I can run a business or play sims, I can't do both lol if that makes sense. I don't run a business very often.

Nightlife - Pros: Vampires, downtown, clubs, dining out, cars, all the nice comm lots. Cons: I can't really think of any.

Pretty much I love them all, but the one I can't live without is Seasons, and the one I would uninstall first is Pets.

Should definitely get Nightlife ASAP. I have all the EPs from Basegame-Seasons, except NL. Problem is, most of the good CCs (especially lots) which requires EPs beyond Uni, almost always require NL as well.

I've only just started playing Sims2 and I only have two EXP packs. Nightlife was the first one brought for me and I love it and I only received University yesterday so I don't have an opnion yet.

I do have one stuff pack, Kitchen and Bath Interior Design, and to be honest, it was given to me otherwise I don't think I would have got it for myself.

I really want Seasons though and in all probability I will buy them all anyway. I'm shameless that way!

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