My take
 

What is your most favorite/least favorite expansion pack, and why? I will have to say my all time fav is Freetime and season because it feels like how my life was. It feels real and the weather is almost like my weather. Least, not really. I love all.
What is your most favorite/least favorite stuff pack, and why? I will say Teen stuff and holiday stuff. I love what it came with and they get to celebrity the holiday I enjoy.
If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be? I will say all 10. I think because I didn't get all of my sims 2 until last year i been using it all.
If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why? None. I love the feel to it. And it helps with my ADHD. I sadly can't use sims3 so sims 2 helps me a lot more. No matter if my cd crack I will get a replacement for it.

Best Ep- BV: I liked the fact that I could 'get away' from the regular routines at home for couple time. I don't use it very much but it's got enough of a new factor that every generation gets to start over.

Uni/NL- Maybe it's because I'm a teacher and I like making my sims smarter while not wasting all my adult life on the mundane. This ep opened up adulthood for things like gardens and vacations...since I usually just kill my old sims off or make them witches and sit them in a corner as permanent babysitters. Liked all the dating features they added in NL and the vamps.

Freetime- pretty cool adding the extra stuff but wouldn't really consider this anything rather than fluff.

Pets- major waste of space. I've only played a pet once and since they basically do everything themselves I never interacted with them much. Never had kittens/puppies so don't know if they're cute.

OFB- LOVED the idea but HATED the game play. You either have to ignore the family side of your life to make money or you make no money. You spend most of your time doing routine things over and over AND OVER again to the point of annoyance, and if you try to get someone to work for you they're idiots. I spent more time directing them and trying to keep them focused than actually doing anything 'business' related- so I lost money and I was still having to pay the idiots for doing nothing. Only good thing is if you do quick turn overs using good you make to build other skills growing up- building up a business and then selling it off. (like badges or cooking meals to learn cooking)

But then again anything after Uni and NL were just fluff- nothing really NEW, just doing the same things in different ways.

Best EP: BV
Worst EP: OFB
Best Stuff Pack: ???? Usually use downloaded items only.

Got the whole collection FREE- because I live in China they have everything on the internet (mostly because you can't buy it here). I've also gotten Sims 3 free but can't figure out what I need to do to change the language to English. -_-' But since I have NO tv, books, or anything to do other than sit at the computer- I spend a LOT of time trying to find something new to do.

My favourite EP has to be Freetime just for the fact the activities made my game life better.
My least favourite EP is University because all in all it's just boring.

My favourite SP is definitely Teen Style Stuff. I need to get that for my birthday.
My least favourite SP is Christmas Stuff Pack because it's only useful for Winter in your game.

Right. From the stuff I have...

#1 - Seasons
There's outerwear, the stuff's nice, gardening, greenhouses (I can make conservatories with them ) and WEATHER. Weather truly enhanced the ENTIRE game experience. Definitely a good find. Rating: 10/10

#2 - Nightlife
I got this with the game because I have Double Deluxe. I really liked the garages, the community lots, having a vehicle, the stuff and Downtown. I wish we could make hotels though, but it's still a nice EP to have. Rating: 9/10

#3 - University
Pretty nice. I like the addition of universities, but I wish we can actually MAKE classrooms. Also, I don't want random Sims claiming dorm rooms, if you understand what I mean.
I do like the musical instruments though. Rating: 7.5/10

Stuff Packs
Celebration! Stuff
I don't use most of the stuff, but it gives nice formal dresses. Rating: 5/10

I wouldn't uninstall any, I like all of them! ~
I'm trying to find Apartment Life right now. I REALLY WANT TO GET IT.

Hmm...

Freetime - for the secondary aspiration, it totally changed the game. Not too happy about the hobbies, though.

Nightlife - for the attraction system (lightning bolts) and the cars

OFB - for the business. It is SO MUCH FUN! My legacy family have a home biz, now the spare siblings have a function!

Seasons - for the pretty weather and the ability to have a farm. The most gorgeous of the EP's,

I am currently trying to snag Pets from Ebay.

My favorite EP? It's a tossup between Nightlife and Open For Business. I love Nightlife for how alive and energetic it makes the game feel, and I love Downtown. Open For Business is great too for all the stuff it adds in Build/Buy mode and of course the businesses which are just generally really fun and interesting to play around with. Least favorite? That would be hard to say. If Bon Voyage is anything like World Adventures in The Sims 3, that might be it due to how it focuses more on going away rather than expanding the actual game, but I only got it recently so I can't really judge it yet. I don't have Apartment Life so I can't say much about that.
Out of the Stuff Packs I have, I'd say H&M Fashion Stuff is my favorite because CAS is one of my favorite parts of the game and H&M just adds so many clothes and outfits. Not a fan of all the branded decor though, lol. Least favorite is probably Family Fun Stuff. It doesn't really add anything other than a bit of themed stuff which is just not suitable and tends to look quite stupid in most instances.

Out of the ones I have, here's how I'd rank the EPs -
Nightlife - Brings life and modern aspects to the game plus some really nice lots and a nice sub neighborhood
Open For Business - Fun and intriguing to mess with and really keeps the game interesting
Seasons - Really adds to the atmosphere and creates a more realistic and interesting environment
Pets - I love pets and this just goes along with that
University - Fun one or two times, then just gets a bit tedious
Bon Voyage - I don't really know since I haven't played with it much, but if it's anything like World Adventures, not a fan of the lack of stuff expanding the actual game rather than just getting you out of it

If I had to remove one? I guess right now since I have yet to get the full experience from Bon Voyage I suppose University since I've already had a full Uni experience in-game and know what to expect and what happens

I've only got Open for Business at the moment. It's one of the few expansion packs (other than Uni and. . .AL? Freetime?) where you can focus gameplay on just one EP with the others minor conveniences to make gameplay nicer.

I now have all EPs installed and I think I can say what my favorites are and why I like them.

I couldn't decide between Night Life and Apartment Life, that is I don't know which is my favorite. NL was the first expansion I got and it seemed to add a new dimension to the game - I love Downtown and all of its buildings, and the Tricous are by far my favorite premade characters.The cars, the vampires, the dates and the furniture are also great. But I like AL just as much, for the apartments. Apartments make it really easy to make friends within the game for the purpose of careers and it's a lot of fun to make your controllable sim knock on another sims door. I've always had a real thing for apartments in real life so having sims live in them is really nice. I strongly dislike the witches though so I have mods to get rid of them.

Second to NL/AL is probably open for business. I never used to do businesses because I found them difficult but so long as you know what you're doing you're fine. Servos are great fun but I don't often use them since my main hood represents the cities in the real life Los Angeles, and to my knowledge there are unfortunately no servos in real life.

After that I think would be uni. while uni itself is way too long I still like the campus life and the instruments that can be played in sync are my second favorite addition to the sims 2, just after apartments.

In tied 5th(?) place is seasons and bon voyage. I never used to like seasons but now I just customize seasons within my each subhood to something I'm happy with. I love Bon Voyage a lot, probably more than seasons, but I think the two EPs are quite dependent on each other - seasons needs bon boyage, bon voyage needs seasons. I really wish EA had just combined the two into one large expansion

Freetime is good but I think they left it almost... half finished? For example the new instruments can't play along with the ones introduced in university, and it's impossible to make a functioning basketball court or football pitch, as well as when they play those two games the animations look really stupid. I had to get mods to abolish the hobby decay. I do however love the science and nature hobby, the new DJ table and the secret clubhouses (or whatever they're called) for each hobby.

Last is pets. I love the werewolves but that's about it. Strays are hell unless you have a visitor controller and most of my sims are too busy to train their pets not to rip up furniture. I do however like the caged pets like the womrat, or the pets you can download from this website, like the rat and hedgehog and chinchilla.The small caged pets are easy maintenance and even the busiest of sims can make time to care for them.

hmmm This is a hard one, because all EP's for TS2 were awesome! (Not like TS3, ughh.)

I think my favorite is OFB, becuase BUSINESS BItch!
Then It's a tie between AL and Seasons, because both changed the gameplay alot! I love the apartments in TS2, it's like one of the best things about TS2 and EA actually did proper Apartments and not some half assed shit that is boring as hell *Looking at you TS3 *
And Seasons was a huge game changer. Seeing my world change with the colors of the year was so amazing the first time so it's one of my favorites.
Then I have to say FT or NL. Because NL gave us so much fun stuff and FT changed alot with the hoppies and two aspirations and more.

I like them all, to be honest, since I'm all about having variety in my gameplay. It does seem like some expansions combine better with other expansions, though. Some of my favorite combinations:

University + Seasons (Put a Sim through college. Join the Education career and get paid more for doing it. Get the Books First for Learning bookshelf. Have kids. Have them get a head start on their education with the Books First for Learning bookshelf. Put the kids through college....)
Open for Business + Bon Voyage (Your business is floundering? Put a Bigfoot on the payroll!)
Open for Business + Free Time (What's better than stocking your store with curtains, teddy bears or pottery at wholesale prices? Making your own!)
Nightlife + Pets (So your neighborhood can have its own "Vampires versus Werewolves" epic...or have them living in the same house, Munsters style.)
University + Nightlife + Open for Business + Pets + Seasons + Bon Voyage + Apartment Life (because if your neighborhood's going to have its own Munsters household, you might as well go whole hog.)
Free Time + Bon Voyage + Apartment Life (because your Music and Dance hobbyists can't call themselves "Lords of the Dance" until they've mastered fire dancing, breakdancing, hula dancing and slap dancing too.)
Open for Business + Seasons (because your mad scientist's house just isn't complete without its own Weather Dominator and an army of robots.)
Nightlife + Apartment Life (How do you stop people from peeping in your coffin while you're napping through the daytime? Hide it behind a secret door!")

...and so on. I'm sure there are many more ways for the expansions to combine their powers and summon Captain Planet or whatever.

Anyway, I gotta have 'em all. Surely I'm not alone in liking all of the expansion packs, right?

Just to let everyone know that EA are giving away the whole Sims 2 bundle (every EP and game) for free till the 31st of July on origin (which is also free)
link: http://help.ea.com/en/article/how-t...ate-collection/

It works!
 

I just saw this! It works~!

Mine just finished installing and holy crap, it actually just boot up- in five seconds? My OFB game took an HOUR just to get past the splash screen!
When I return I will have reviews on most everything.

I honestly loved pretty much all the EP's...but I suppose I could pick a top three.

1st Place: Bon Voyage. I love vacations (who doesn't?) and being able to let my sims take the time off and explore/try different things was really great. I know it can get buggy and all, but I honestly loved taking my sims on vacation and building new ones. Plus, let's face it, there are so many awesome hotels and the like on modthesims.info. We can all agree on that, right?

2nd Place: Seasons. I found that it added so much realism to the game and I just loved every aspect of it. My favorite season was probably winter because it was/is so fun to see the sims having a great time out there. I've even decided to incorporate holidays with the seasons, like winter is the christmas season, in summer the families go on vacation, and in fall I plan a big feast and make it Thanksgiving

3rd Place: Open for Business/Pets/Nightlife/University: Yep, I give up now.


Good luck finding your new game!

I do not really prefer pets since it only comes with dog & cats, but I mean I made a pretty decent fox with the cat tool. I think Bon Voyage has its ups & downs because twikki island was really good but I expected more clothing and I hating the pick-pocket that came with it. University is great too but, I got overwhelmed with it because basically in every dormitory, there would be like 3 music machines and your sim would want to just dance instead of doing work. Also, for my sim(s) it did take ALOT of pressure to join like a sorriotry (idk how to spell it) since all my sim a girls, but,nightlife is a great pack.

First of all, sorry to bump up this thread.
Second of all, let's get to the point.

I only started playing The Sims 2 in 2012 so I don't have that many expansions (only University, Nightlife and Pets) but here's my opinion.

University: I love University! I have a habit of making perfect Sims and this just gave a whole new way to be perfect. Also, the Resurrect-O-Nomitron is a great addition.
I really like having the young adult stage. It's a new chance to develop your skills, start a family and basically have fun. In my first University game, my Knowledge sim was so desperate for good grades she got engaged to her professor. The second she got out into the 'real world', she broke up with him.

Nightlife: I have Double Deluxe, so I basically started the game with Nightlife. I love the dating system and had a lot of fun once making a couple - one who sent the other flowers and another who gave a hilarious card that basically said 'I hate you'. Also, I like the addition of the Matchmaker.

Pets: I wouldn't say this is my favourite expansion ever, but it's kind of okay. I liked the ability to make my own dog and cat breeds, but since I played The Sims 3 before The Sims 2 I was a little sad that they didn't have horses. However, I liked the ability to get your pets careers.

I can't really pick a favourite, but Nightlife and University are my top two. However, if I had all the expansions, I would probably prefer Open for Business, Free Time and Seasons.

My favourite EPs are University and FreeTime. I feel that they add lots of new gameplay that suits my playing style. I also enjoy Apartment Life a lot, and Seasons is useful to have (albeit sometimes annoying, like during storms). I'm indifferent about Pets, Bon Voyage and Nightlife - sure, they're nice to have, add some fun new features, but I could live without them. I don't play businesses, therefore I don't use a lot of the features of Open for Business - so I guess that would be my least favourite.

I have all stuff packs, but mostly use IKEA Home Stuff for furniture and H&M Fashion Stuff for clothing, and occasionally stuff from others, too. They're very useful to me as I don't have CC (except for mods) but I guess if someone has a lot of CC these are not as useful.

I started playing Sims 2 after years of giving up on it simply because I loved running businesses. Need I say more? Sims 3 was so disappointing on that matter. I hope Sims 4 will bring this feature back! *fingers crossed*

I completely love IKEA, and that stuff pack allowed me to make my dream houses. I am all for simplicity, ahah. And H&M because I am a shopaholic. :p

I always hated OfB. I thought "It is sooo boring, how can somebody really love this expansion?"
And yesterday I built a pet shop, my sim sells cats and dogs and accesories. And now I absolutely love this expansion. How could I not love it before?

Expansion Pack:
-Nightlife (Adding so much, so good things!)
-Open For Bussines
-University
-Pets
-Apartament Life
-Bon voyage
-Seasons
-Free Time (Not bad, but other ones are better, this one is adding very few things)
Stuff Packs:
-Ikea (I love IKEA!)
-H&M
-Glamour Life ex aequo Mansion and Garden
-Kitchen and Bath
-Teen Style ex aequo Family Fun
-Celebration! (Just reskins of base game items, altrough it can be usefull.)

My favorite would have to be University and my least favorite is Teen Style only because I don't believe that it was enough in the sp. I have them all and usually when I bought them it would be a purchase of like two or three at a time so I couldn't honestly say which one really is not the greatest. When playing with them all it makes my game play awesome. I like that they give you more interactions with each addition. I really hoped that before TS3 the would have given us one more but I suppose that's just being greedy.

My top five favourites:

1) Open For Business. I really like the concept of home businesses, and I hope they make something similar for the Sims 4.
2) Pets. Of course we need pets, and the fact that they can be FULLY CONTROLLABLE with cheats is really nice.
3) Nightlife. Cars, new places to see, things to do, and arguably the best music of the expansion packs.
4) FreeTime. Hobbies, cool new objects, free computer from Rod Humble, etc.
5) Seasons. Lovely weather effects, and a nice new neighbourhood.

My least favourite, sorry to say, would have to be University. I didn't really get much play time out of it till I got bored and dropped my Sims out of the college.

I have only two favorites that I've picked out, but a bunch of random comments about other ones:

1.) OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Definitely number one for me! I love making them into entrepreneurs and running their own businesses and all that. All my really rich sims are the ones who run one or two businesses in town. I wish learning the cash register skill wasn't such a slow process though. I hate it when customers get fed-up waiting and stomp off. (Although the great and powerful Numenor did make that 'practice' cash register you can practice on when the store is closed. That helps!) Also, some clever modder (can't remember who, now) made a custom sculpture manufactory for carving your own sculptures out of hunks of rock, so I've actually made businesses that sell nothing but paintings and sculptures to lend some culture to my little towns. I still have no idea how you're supposed to make any money running a hair salon, offering "free" makeovers to people wandering by. I guess you're supposed to use that ticket machine which charges customers by the hour for as long as they stay on the lot. Makeovers don't take much time though, so you'd have to have other stuff on the lot as well, like a bubble blower or a hot tub or a sauna or something to make any cash. How realistic is that?? Not very. Nonetheless, OFB is still my fave, by far.

2.) SEASONS: I love weather! And I love outerwear too, especially custom outerwear! (Does anybody know why that fur coat from GL is considered formalwear, not outerwear? Who walks around at a party in a fur coat? I guess if you're at a party on the wrong side of the tracks you might be afraid to take it off, but otherwise it doesn't make much sense, LOL.) Raking leaves and gardening are very huge additions to the game and make for a whole other layer of experience. I really hate plant-sims, but what are you gonna do. I had one very dedicated old lady gardener who turned into a plant-sim and I was so disgusted I stopped playing her! In real life, if you garden a lot you just get better at gardening, you don't actually turn into a PLANT! Geez! How ridiculous. Oh well, that's this game for you; you have to take the bad with the good. Again, this expansion, as well as all the other expansions, is greatly enhanced by making use of all the great custom content out there, like Beck's farm animals for instance. I love those chickens!


Random Remarks, in no particular order:

PETS: This one was a bit of a disappointment. The pets are too needy and too time-consuming to be realistic. If they're not ripping your house to shreds they're piddling on the floor or stinking up the joint in some other way. What they could have done, when your cat or dog has a go at some piece of furniture, instead of reducing it to a pile of sticks the resale value of that piece of furniture should be reduced to 0 simoleons. Now that would be realistic! My cats are always getting heck for clawing up my furniture, but they never seem to learn not to, and never have they turned one into a heap of firewood . . . however, I'd have a hard time trying to sell any of it to anybody. lol. I never bother with that gerbil thing, and I rarely buy birds for my sims. And there are no horses! I know this one has been flogged to death, but it still eats me alive that they would go to the trouble of making a Pets expansion pack and not include horses. I bet if you polled a thousand people here, what would be the biggest complaint about the Pets EP? No horses! The Sims 3 horses are gorgeous (but the sims themselves are hideous, so I don't ever go there.) Or at least they could have done a Farm Life EP and made horses and sheep etc. a separate thing. Oh well, thank God for CC is what I always say.

UNIVERSITY

I have a number of gold-badge gardeners and no plant sims, Laura. No pesticides; ladybug houses. All the way.

I also don't have a problem with pets being too destructive or hard to train. Don't get pets if you don't have the time to devote to them. As in real life.

Don't give away makeovers! Sell them! You set the price and they buy as per usual. Also you can sell clothes in the same store, though I don't recommend having a lot of other things for sale besides the makeover chair, as the customers will ponder buying the same deco shampoo over and over rather than gravitating to the chair. If you visit the beauty salon with other playable sims, you'll see that they sell a lot of "maintenance" haircuts, that leave the sim looking the same as before, at the cost of whatever the chair's set for. Only give free makeovers to fix a bad one.

You're about to say University is boring and I'm about to tell you that you're not playing with enough students, or loosening up and taking advantage of the full DRAMA potential.

There are no good or bad EPs. There are EPs that we learned how to play in the way that's fun for us, and those that we didn't.

UNIVERSITY: I agree with HP: Playing the Uni life is a drag. Takes far too long, and not much to do around their one class per day! (Wow, sign me up!) I usually build my own dorms and put stuff in them that may not be all that realistic and jacks up the bills a fair bit, but I prefer that to having to send them all over town to do things. Also, with showers all over the place, why are so many Uni students so indifferent to hygiene? Green fumes pouring off people all the time. It's off-putting. And who the hell gets personal visits from their professors at the dorm? I mean really! This is usually some old bag they've met once or twice before declaring a major that they might have three relationship beans with, and yet she'll show up and ring the bell twenty times every other day for weeks. Then when you finally let her in she ignores you anyway! I don't mind stupid game-play stuff that you can avoid or ignore, but that one is kind of a pain the bum. What I do like about Uni is that it's four extra years of life, during which they not only get a degree (and therefore greater earning-power in the workforce) but also plenty of time to gain tons of skill points, and find and get attached to a mate without sucking up precious years of adulthood.

HOLIDAY FUN STUFF: I love Santa too, but I wonder why he spends so much time in the bathroom. He might drop a few toys for the kids, but then it's straight to the loo for hours. I think it's a nice addition to the game though, having Santa visit. (And I actually kind of like it when the tree catches fire. Call me nuts.) Too bad there are no interactive Halloween things, like having little dressed up kids show up demanding candy, or else throwing eggs at your house. Hah! That would be hilarious! I actually threw my very first New Years party the other day, and it was great! Nice to see a party with some different stuff to do, like banging on pots and making a racket, and having Father Time there. I've never actually thrown a birthday party for anyone; the family just gathers around the cake and the kid grows up and that's that. I have no idea if anything special happens at birthday parties, maybe I'll throw one and find out.

Oh boy are you wasting your opportunities with University. That's the Drama Professor ringing your doorbell - she's in love with everybody.

University. Getting out and meeting people and mixing it up with streakers and throwing toga parties and getting rid of the pesky virginity and joining a Greek house and throwing toga parties and having cow mascot fights and making up and breaking up with your high school sweetheart and finding your one true love and wasting your first two years only to wake up and change your aspiration at the beginning of Junior and knuckling down to learn how to work and renting a house with all your BFFs and suddenly realizing what impossible slobs they are and walking all around campus by clicking from one lot to another and making out in the library and OMG THE KITCHEN IS ON FIRE AND IT'S TIME FOR MY FINAL -

Holey cheese I love University....

I do suggest making all your own community lots, though. The ones that ship with the universities are too big and too bare, even by Maxis standards.

Thanks for the reply, Peni. I had no idea you could set the price on the makeover chair! Dang! Well, that makes a lot more sense. It was a thing that I've just never explored fully, I was always more interested in running retail stores for clothes and furniture. Restaurants are fun too.

About Uni: Remind me of what drama potential you mean. I've had them join Greek houses and Secret Societies and start a band and go around playing instruments for tips, etc. but is there something I'm missing? I wouldn't be surprised if there is. I've never had anybody begin an affair with a professor for good marks, but when I play Uni I usually have five teenagers from town go at once and I've usually got them paired up in my mind already (I'm a great believer in arranged sim marriages). Then I spend all my time trying to find a suitable life-partner for the fifth one. It might be cool for the fifth-wheel of the bunch to try that, but my sims are usually too ambitious to have to resort to such sleazy tactics, lol.

Overall, of course, you're right: They're all good in their own ways, and there is something for everyone. I never liked the witches/vampires/zombies/werewolves very much, although I know they are very popular. Sims should be terribly afraid of them, but nobody bats an eye if a witch suddenly swoops down on her broom in front of your restaurant or whatever. It renders the whole thing pointless if you ask me. Same with green alien children with enormous eyeballs. If nobody's reacting to it, what is the point? Ghosts are the only supernatural elements I really like, because a really badly haunted house is actually a dangerous place to live. You can't get a decent night's sleep, and with your needs depleted you can be frightened to death very easily. I wish the other supernatural creatures had similar effects on people.

Hello everyone!

Long time no see, hope you're all well! I have been on a sims hiatus due to various reasons, but I have really missed it! I'm getting a new laptop which should be able to cope with the game properly, and be able to run all EP's and SP's. I did get the Ultimate Collection, but I don't want to install it, as I want to leave some things out.

I have worked out which EP's I want (just not getting Uni or OFB), but am stuck on SP's. I have spent the last few hours reading this thread. I also tried to look at some pictures of what is included in the SP's, on the databases here http://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/ and here http://sims2-objectdefaults.dreamwidth.org/ , but the pictures are so small! Maybe my eyesight is going. Anyway, does anyone know of any larger pictures I could look at please?

EDIT-Just found some Ikea pictures, thank you HystericalParoxysm http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=334781

I'm not sure if I would like the clothing/hair you get in the SP's, as I am very picky and have downloaded lots of lovely cc over the years. Clothes and hair are probably my favourite type of cc.

I'm not much of a builder, but it has begun to irritate me that the maxis furniture doesn't match, for example, in the bedroom you can't have a matching wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside table, bookcase, and bed. Or in the living room, you can't have a matching sofa, chair, TV, stereo, bookcase and end table.

I like the kid's dragon costume from Family Fun Stuff, but I'm not sure it's worth installing the whole thing just for that. I also like the idea of Celebration Stuff, as I do enjoy my sims' weddings, but again I'm not sure if I would like everything that you get.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks

I'm not sure as to what is the best or worst EP or SP. I have all except Kitchen and Bath (for now). Personally, I tend to stay with maxis/EA made stuff. I think that who ever made the Maxis/EA stuff must have a warped sense of humor to not make matchin items. Luckily for us, we have some really good sim creators that fixed some of this hole that was left. While this is an old list and not really updated, there are still valid links to items that match in game stuff. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...ist:Maxis_Match
I just love N99 and their MM stuff.

Have you tried the SIms Wiki to see objects? http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Category...ort=mostvisited

Oh thank you so much, that Maxis Match link is really helpful, it might be just what I'm looking for!

I did have a look at the Wiki link, but I couldn't find much furniture, I'm going to have another look.

I've decided to get Celebration Stuff. I'm still not sure about Family Fun Stuff. I'm considering Ikea Stuff.

As for recommending EP's to others, I've only played Nightlife and Pets, but I love them both and couldn't play without them!
Nightlife:
+ Attraction.
+ Dates.
+ Vampires.
+ Cars.
+ Lovely clothes and hair.
+ Downtown-fun for outings and your sims can live there aswell.
Pets:
+ Werewolves.
+ Dogs, cats, birds, womrats, fish tanks (not sure if they came with Pets).
- No horses Huge minus points for Maxis, although I do have Rebecah's amazing horses. The only thing that has ever made me consider Sims 3 is the horses and all the stables stuff (I don't like anything else about Sims 3 though).
- No bunnies or lizards (although you can download lizards).
- No waterbowl?! Very unrealistic. I had to download one.
+ Lots of cute interactions between pets and sims.
+ Lots to do with pets, breeding, training, taking for walks etc.
+ Completes life, you can't have people without animals.
- Strays are annoying. I don't mind walkbys, I might want to adopt one of those pets. But the dogs that come and bark on your doorstep irritate me. Or ones that come and meet my sims, I don't want my sims talking to townies, so I don't want them talking to strange pets either.
+ I actually quite like the strays digging holes and messing up your flowers, it adds a bit of realism.
+ There are some nice wallpapers etc. and some of the pet equipment is nice.
- Pet wants are annoying when they are about a pet who does not live in the same house as your sim.

I guess it depends on your playing style -- I personally love Uni (it's actually why I'm here right now despite technically being on a TS3 test period, lol, that's how much I miss it), but I don't like to micromanage too much. I usually have a general idea of what I want to do with my sims, but if they choose to do otherwise, I just go with their whims and wishes; I only step in to keep them from dying.

College is kind of perfect for that, especially with ACR installed - I also used to play with a hacked beer keg for parties that would wreck absolutely havoc, and it was so much fun. Freshman year is the best; I held introductory parties held at every Greek house with all the freshmen + the friends of the Greek houses invited. I held a similar bash for graduates, too. I came up with the idea of fraternity/sorority rushes for a while, but that got pretty hectic for the ones living at the Greek houses (it's basically partying 24/7 for an entire semester while trying to keep up your grades), but at least it wasn't boring.

It gets slightly less dramatic when you have smaller batches of same-year students at the same time, but at the same time, it also makes for closer friendships. Or not always, lol - Tank Grunt still managed to pick fights with every single person outside of his own dorm at every party he went to. But Johnny Smith graduated with at least 20 new friends, I think

Either way, TS2 college was such a blast IMO. Whether they went party-crazy or simply developed a new circle of life-long friends, maybe found the love of their life or a new hobby (Tank maxed his Logic skill and became a total chess maniac, through which he made his first friends), those four long years were almost never eventless; thanks to all that spare time, they had freedom to really do exactly what they wanted... whereas in the main 'hoods, they're usually so preoccupied with their daily lives and responsibilities (especially after they grow older and have families) they just can't go crazy in the same way. Well, unless they want to go to work with half of their needs in red and come back to screaming quadruplets, that is

Nightlife is a must!

Fell fast in love with OFB despite thinking I would hate it. :lovestruc

If Apartment Life was bit a more well-engineered and playable it would be in my favorites too.

Seasons, well... it adds seasons and hot cocoa!

Free Time has nice items but can get annyoing and the Hobby system isn't for me really.

University and Bon Voyage are games on their own IMHO and not essential to me.

Pets is just utterly uninteresting to me (not a pet person in RL too) but of course almost all my Sims familys now have one of those crazy critters.

Aah, the makeover chair! I once had an elder living in a run-down cabin with raggedy furnishings and a big dog. As I was at the huge shopping mall (the one with a gorilla on top), the elder male wandered in. Awhile later I heard shouting and looked over towards the salon. He had gotten a makeover with huge red lips and big round cheeks, lots of mascara and still had his scruffy beard. I was appalled. Later I went to his house and he still had all that mess on him. I was so upset that he would have to roam the hood looking that way, as I had no idea how to fix it. I thought death would be better, but then he would be the oddest looking ghost. I finally realized it was a face mask and remove-able. He got to live awhile longer, happy with his sloppy dog and all.

I don't care much for pets, themselves, but there are nice objects from that pack. I've got pets blocked everywhere and occasionally have the loner type sim who has a cat or dog for their only companion. It's neat to see a sim jog by with their dog on occasion. All expansions have their good and bad but worth it to have the complete set and avoid what you don't like.

Excluding all of the stuff packs: I would have to throw Seasons under the bus because it contributes nothing toward making the game more pleasurable to play. Its either always raining or its always snowing and all of the fking leaves on the ground dont get me started. And when summer rolls around you better hope to god it falls on the weekend you have off or youre gonna miss it. Pass

I didn't have any SPs except for Celebrations until I had decent enough internet to download the UC.
My favourite SP is Ikea. I like the fact I can go to Ikea and buy the same or similar stuff my Sims have!

As for EP, it is really hard... It's between Nightlife (as a must), Open for Business and FreeTime I can't live without.

My favourite SP is definitely H&M, the clothes that it gives you are really nice. I guess celebrations is the one I use the least? I never want to waste my sims hard earned cash on items they're only going to use once, like pretty wedding deco!

EP-wise, I'm big on university despite its unpopularity. It can drag on a bit, but I like the extra lifespan it gives my sims, and university is always the time when my sims grow and change the most (just like real life!) I find it a welcome change from the usual focus on family life, and the extra time lets me really get to know my sims. Love freetime, too! Hobbies give sims a bit more character, and the items that come with it give their homes more character (my personal favourite is the sewing machine!) The ability to age up townies is useful, too.
Nightlife I could probably live without, since I prefer to use the "walk to lot" feature rather than driving, and rarely bother with downtown, but I do love the attraction system.
Bon Voyage and Pets are probably the ones I rely on the least (except for the walk to lot feature, which I think came with BV). I like them both and enjoy what they have to offer, but they don't feel NECESSARY in the same way many of the others do. (Seasons and OFB are a must for farming, fishing, subhoods, player-owned community lots, and general seasonal prettyness. It'd be hard to run my BACC hood without them.) Pets are cute but I don't feel attached to them the way I do my sims, and holidays are a luxary most of my sims can't afford (although the themed sets are lovely, and I intend to make an east asian hood someday)

Hi everyone! I don't know if I'm gonna get a reply or anything, but I just wanted to know something.
There is a kind of stuff pack that I've always been looking for but that I can't find, I used to own it. It has the Sim icon on a red shopping bag, I think.
Could anybody tell me what's its name?
Thanks!

@serugenerica Could you be thinking of H&M Fashion Stuff?

Hey, thanks for replying so soon!
Actually it isn't, I was just thinking that I should have added that to my comment
I don't know if it was a non-official pack or what it was, it had new hairstyles and clothes, I think.

Hm... I don't know what else you could be thinking of, other than perhaps Open For Business? *shrug* I'm just grabbing things with shopping bags on the cover and suggesting them! Try going over this link from Wikipedia; maybe you'll find this enigma of a stuff pack on there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_2

Sorry I could not be of more help to you, but I hope you find what you were looking for.

Okay here's my humble (and long) contribution:

Nightlife: I don't even consider Nightlife as an expansion pack, to me, it's just a continuation of core base game, I use double deluxe after all. Attraction. Best thing to come out of this game so far (better if you have ACR). I actually know just how much those little people want to sleep with other people and how hot they are. The results are always hilarious, especially if the people they really wanna do it with is some fugly townie instead of the good looking rich guy next door. Cars, which are kind of a requirement instead of a bonus so it's got to be counted. I also like the date/outing system, how it can go dreamy or hilariously wrong. Also, without Nightlife, there aren't nearly enough flirt interactions, and I just love those.

Freetime: Yes, the "in the zone" thing is annoying. Or the game telling you if they lost interest in their passion or not. Still, there are hacks to remedy that. One true hobbies really add character to sims, to the point I can't think of them without it. It helps that whenever I make a Harry Potter sim he unfailingly rolls his one true hobby as sports (lol quidditch), but more than that, it helps me to see my sims as more than cookie cutter people. It adds quirk, as in, yes, you wouldn't expect the Grunt dude to roll music & dance as his one true hobby, but he, in fact, loves to jam to the rhythm when he comes home from the military work. Secondary aspirations! Yes, that sim who is a Family/Romance is unstable because of their aspirations. And while Fortune sims were just, you know, Fortune sims before, I can now think that Fortune/Pleasure sims only want money to squander it on their journey to a painless life, while Fortune/Family sims want to provide for their family. Random, but I also like the record player thingy.

OFB: For obvious reasons. You just feel like you should be able to make a self sufficient town, Riverblossom Hills, for example, one of my favorite neighborhoods, doesn't have anyone working in a Maxis or custom career. The farmer dude sells his lovingly grown vegetables because that's all his life consists of. One of the sims runs the local 711 market, the other knits and sells clothes, because there are no widely known retail stores in their town, the town's a really small one. Realism, you know? I've yet to discover how you can run a rundown motel without making it a vacation hood though, gotta read up on that. What's so good about this expansion pack is that there's definitely something you haven't tried yet, it never gets old. Yes, you might have run a bakery a thousand times, but you probably haven't tried selling books in a cute little bookstore with a nerdy hermit.

Seasons: Farming! Though I'd love it if there was any way in which you could make custom veggies grow, it's still good as it stands, it's a good, full, satisfying expansion pack. "OMG it's hailing" is annoying, but there are hacks for that. Other than that, with Seasons, you can make elderly ladies that grow veggies in their tiny little urban backyard, organics snobs who only eat home grown food, even isolated mystery islands in which people have to survive with only grown food. It's also good for medieval games! Fishing is also great, if you have Saladin's produce and fish packing stations, you can sell them at stores or cook them if you're too broke to buy your food. Also, the Seasons country furniture is to die for. The only thing I don't like about seasons are those weird sparkles fresh food get when cooked, just no, blah to those. But there are hacks for that, as well.

Apartment Life: The flats system is good and necessary. I especially like the British townhouses look you can do with it, or the trailer parks. I don't think that there's anything extra special that this EP brings other than the apartments system, but it's necessary, so there. Also the Kiss/Dance and Kiss/Suck Face, so precious and adorkable and awkward. I love them. Oh, and the little diner setup with the NPC cook. The bad thing about it? The social groups. OMFG someone please stop those social groups from appearing in every hood, they're not so easily modded out, I get confused.

Pets: Eh. The crazy cat lady or gentleman gets old after awhile. Pets don't really affect sims' lives, if it was something like Family/Popularity sims hitting aspiration failure after the pets get sick/don't eat much, or Maxis designed horses and chicken, it could be entertaining. But right now, it's just cats and dogs just hanging out by themselves without really adding anything to the gameplay and/or sims' life, they're just sitting there looking vaguely cute. Nah. It would be better off as a stuff pack or something, methinks.

Bon Voyage: Don't get me wrong, I loved this one the first time I played it, the little minigame with "will he be able to get room service or meet the bigfoot or won't he" was fun at first, but. After I did it once it just wasn't. The vacay hoods are fun and great on their own, but what this EP fails in is that it is so, and I mean so, hard to make your own vacation hood. The tourists and locals are so hard to make from scratch/modify/whatever. I'd also like some sims to permanently live in vacation hoods rather than just visit. As it stands, I only like it because it adds character to sims, with sims of different aspirations wanting different vacations (Family always wants Mountain, Popularity Tropical, Knowledge Far East, I think). Another bonus of this EP is beaches, even if you don't like vacations, you can use the beach lots to build on.

University: Honestly? I only install this one for want/fear locks and 6 wants and the minifridge. Other than that? Uhm, not one I really like. One thing that should have been done with this EP was adults & elders being able to go to uni and marriage/pregnancy at college. Hacks can make those possible, though. This EP it's too isolated from other gameplay, if young adult was a lifestage that took place at the hometown instead of the uni town it would be a lot more interesting.

I don't have any stuff packs other than M&G right now because of computer issues, but I played them in the past. My ranking would be:

IKEA: Hands down, the best SP. So, so many functional, pretty, simple, cheap, modern furniture. IKEA couches look good in literally every type of decoration except for medieval type of stuff, and I often don't need loads of CC just for the house to not look like it was decorated by a bunch of broke students who just put whatever mismatched furniture their neighbors threw out.

Kitchen & Bath: Second best after IKEA. The bath and kitchen furniture are a must for my game, too bad my computer can't handle SPs on top of EPs.

Teen Style Stuff: I really like the desks, TVs and bookcases from this stuff pack. Non eye bleeding clothing for teens as well.

M&G: Yeah, the solar system is possibly good, but I never use it. The smell air and sniff flowers thing was annoying before I modded it out. I've also heard it makes the game easier for builders, but I don't build much. The reason I love it is the setquarterplacement cheat. Perfect for cluttering the house with no fuss.

Celebration Stuff: Love this one for the male tuxedos and not much else.

Family Fun: Good kid furniture.

H&M: Good if you like the Maxis clothing. The clothes are good for Maxis standards, but even when I install it I end up default replacing the clothes for completely different or better fitting versions.

Happy Holiday: I like the... candle?

Glamour Life: What was the point of this stuff pack?

I don't know why but the minifridge part really made me laugh

Is it worth installing the Ultimate Collection?

Well, that depends. It doesn't add anything extra, and you can't use AGS with it, which is a dealbreaker for me; and you have to jump through a few hoops to make other editing tools like SimPE and other utilities work with it, and it probably breaks some hacks, and it's only available as a download not in hardcopy, and if you really hate one EP's features you can't leave it out, and if your graphics can't handle Seasons and above you're SOL.

But if you're only going to want to play with all EPs and SPs, and don't create, or don't mind if not everybody can use what you create, and don't use editing tools much, and aren't worried about having disks in case of computer disaster, or for some reason can't get all the disks - sure. Especially if you can get it for free, which I think you still can if you know how. I haven't heard that it breaks anything or creates new hassles that are any worse than the old hassles.

Do your research. Nobody can decide that question but you.

Thanks for your help!

I've opted to purchase a copy of The Sims 2 on eBay with the four-disk install, given that my current disk copy's serial code doesn't work. If it did, I wouldn't even be considering a digital download. In the meantime, I'm going to install the Double Deluxe from my Origin account to get myself back into the game. Seriously though - I don't want all of the EPs wasting space on my computer!

I think it's worth having a working disk copy of the original anyway, given they're much more reliable for future use. The little games you get to play as you install also give me a tonne of nostalgia.

It is true that AGS does not work with UC.

I broke my original Sims 2 basegame cd a long time ago. Kept on playing, it fortunately broke after I installed it due to general clumsiness and stupidity. I could not find a replacement, and still have not found one (I am still looking). I was reasonably happy with the discs, even played a vanilla game with no mods at all for four and a half years. I do have all the expansion packs and the stuff packs, excluding Teen Style Stuff.

What I did find, eventually, was the Double Deluxe. Then there was a hardware problem with my pc and it was one of those install everything again times.So I installed the Double Deluxe DVD and my discs. My game crashed a lot and I had to install it again and again, which I found very irritating and time-consuming. I concluded that the Double Deluxe is not working that well with the CD's then. I did play for a long while, though, but it did not run smoothly like it used to do.

The Ultimate Collection, for me, changed my game in positive ways. It has, since I installed it almost immediately when it became available, only crashed once (that was yesterday and I have sorted it since).

All the mods I use work, so do most of the utilities (I believe it is only AGS that does not work with UC), but you have to do things a little differently sometimes - it is the exception, though, not the rule). Yes, there are players that cannot use my creations - but then there are players who can, and personally I do not prefer stuff that is made for the Base game - because, for one thing, custom base game beds and baths and chairs do not work with pets and, for another, fridges do not have Free Time or OFB options. And in my humble opinion there have to be players who feel the same way as I do about creations..

You cannot build a lot that is base game only, but there are plenty of UC players who download the other lots anyway, so you can still create.

You only have to download the UC once - the only other time you will ever need to download it is if you buy a new pc - if you want to start a fresh vanilla game, you simply delete the Sims 2 UC folder, start the game and a new one is created. If anything else goes wrong, it can be repaired in Origin, but you do not have to be logged in to play it at all.

I am playing Sims 2 using the Ultimate Collection on Windows 10 now - I had to do some graphics fixing, and one will probably have to do that again after a repair - so simply keep backups in case you need it.

So due to my personal experience, I will stand up for the Ultimate Collection

Me too; I really use AGS a lot.


I had no problem getting SimPE to run, and I've not found any hacks that won't work with UC that work with a full disc install.

One thing I'll say for the Ultimate Collection is that it's so convenient! It really downloaded and installed quickly for me, and is ready patched. Installing from discs takes a very long time.

@Justpetro I think you may have had other problems other than DD for my copy is working and has been working ever since I got it way back in 2008.

It runs AGS and my no cd mods work great with it.

I got UC for my Windows 8 computer and I have 2.6 sets of disk versions of the full game.
1 set is the 4 cd base game with all the EP/SP's on there own disks.
1 set with Deluxe or Double Deluxe (I have both) with another set of stand alone CD/DVD's of the EP's and SP's and this is the set that I use the most of.

I also have the other 3 tri paks but only as back up just in case I need them way in the future.

@marka93 - the Double Deluxe did indeed work with the other CD's; it just crashed more often than before or after. The game was slow at times, as well as the loading times (if it loaded at all). Of course it might have had something to do with configuration, I can only talk about my own experience. I did upgrade my pc in the meantime, but only after starting to use the UC.

I broke CD number 3 of the cd base game set, perfectly in two halves, still stashed away with the other 3 unbroken ones, the DD and the rest of the stuff ( i have obtained 3 copies of Mansion and Garden since it is the play disk, never really thought of the no cd mod ) - for in case disaster strikes and I should need them. Hopefully not.

And UC, on the other hand, does not crash; I only had to repair it twice (that was also due to general stupidity); and it loads and runs very quickly on Windows 10.

Gonna do what RedSimmies did and just give my two cents on all the packs :P

University: This is probably one of my favorites. I enjoyed the whole University experience, and I liked the addition of Young Adults. Although I can see why others don't like it since it does take awhile (but I'm 90% sure there are mods to shorten it).

Nightlife: I like the cars, dating, new locations to check out, and the matchmaker NPC with her potions and shit. I don't like the chemistry or fury aspects though, since it interferes and messes with the way I want my sims' stories to unfold.

Open For Business: I consider this pack to be my #1 favorite EP by far. I loved running my own businesses and getting to hire/fire people. It also added some new stuff that I liked.

Pets: This one is definitely my least favorite. As much as I love animals IRL, I just couldn't really find myself enjoying owning pets. I liked the customization available for creating them, but that was honestly about it. They're really boring to play with IMO, and all you can really do with them is fill their needs and train them to stop digging in your yard and destroying your furniture. I never play with them, and they're just kind of useless to me.

Seasons: I really like the new gameplay that this brought, like skating and gardening, but the Winter season gets a little annoying sometimes when it starts to become intrusive in regards to how I want to play out my sims' lives.

Bon Voyage: This one is pretty weak IMO. The vacations get boring fast and it doesn't have that many items/clothes that I use since most of it is obnoxious themed things that you wouldn't use unless you were purposefully trying to make an Asian house, Tiki hut, or log cabin.

Freetime: This one is just kind of "meh" if you ask me. I like some of the new activities and things that came with it, but the main thing that I don't like is that the game randomly chooses what your sim's primary interest is going to be instead of letting you decide. It screws with what I have planned for my sims. For instance, if I make a sim who I want to be a musical genius who loves to play instruments but the game decides to make their primary interest "tinkering," it fucks everything up.

Apartment Life: Another "meh" pack. I like a lot of the clothes and objects that came with it, but I don't really use apartments that much since they're a bit too small for me. I played using one once and I quickly got annoyed with having to keep banging on the wall to make my neighbors shut up. I also thought that witches were an odd thing to lump into the pack. They seem kind of interesting, but I haven't ever really played with them since it requires a lot of work to become one and I just don't really care that much.

Family Fun Stuff: It's mainly the inevitable "things for children since they're always ignored" pack. Not much else to say. I use some of the furniture, but I don't really use the costumes. It's just okay IMO.

Glamour Life Stuff: It's mostly a bunch of tacky pretentious objects and clothing that I don't even use because I could find much better "glamorous" CC online for free. Thankfully, I never wasted money on this one and only got it when the UC gave it to me for free.

Happy Holiday Stuff: Ridiculous, tacky decorations galore! Seriously, I hardly EVER use the stuff in this pack unless it's the New Year's Eve fireworks (maybe? o-o). The decorations look so silly that even Santa himself would say they're a little too over-the-top. Would not recommend unless you're dying to build Santa's workshop or a themed house for the holidays.

Celebration! Stuff: Probably the first stuff pack I can actually say I use the stuff from a lot. I use the formal attire every now and then if my CC isn't cutting it, and it comes with a lot of nice party objects as well as some walls and floors I use a lot. It's not my absolute favorite, but it's a good pack nonetheless.

H&M Fashion Stuff: This pack is decent, at best. Some of the clothes are cute and I use them, but some of them are ugly and very dated-looking (not surprising since this came out in 2007). I don't really use the objects because they aren't useful unless you plan on building and running your own H&M with OFB installed (which I don't).

Teen Style Stuff: I really like the furniture that came with this pack. It gave some much-needed decor for teenagers, who were pretty much ignored in the past in terms of the stuff they got in EPs and SPs. I use the furniture a lot. The clothes are a little tacky for my tastes, but it's still a good pack.

Kitchen & Bath Stuff: Another pack I use a lot. I often use it when designing my kitchens (as well as my bathrooms, but mostly my kitchens). The clothing isn't exactly stuff I would constantly want my sims wearing, since it's mostly hair towels and bathrobes, but that's fine since this pack was meant to focus on objects anyway. It's definitely one of the better packs IMO.

IKEA Home Stuff: This is my favorite Stuff Pack, no doubt about it. I'm CONSTANTLY using the furniture when decorating my houses. It was the first pack to include some decent-looking furniture that isn't tacky and actually looks like furniture that I would use. Out of all the SPs, it's definitely the one I use the most. It comes in handy when you're running low on CC and you can't find any good furniture anywhere else.

Mansion and Garden Stuff: This one's OKAY, but it doesn't really have anything that I'm looking for since I'm not a builder. But I am glad I have it, since it means that I can install CC lots that make good use of the build mode objects that come with it.

Well that took longer than I expected. Sorry if I bored you, I get a little out of hand with my opinions sometimes

Wow, most people love Seasons. I guess I never really played around with everything that you could do in it. Maybe I will this time.
Speaking as of right now, my list is as follows:

1 - Pets > sorry, but I adore Pets. I think part of it comes from not being allowed pets growing up, or where I live now.
2 - Nightlife > vampires! And the whole downtown section is really cool.
3 - OFB = University > These two rank equally for me. I've probably played them roughly the same amount of time. My business failed, predominately because I was trying to do so many other things, and I think in Uni I just trailed off...
5 - Seasons > eh. I thought it was mostly just 'hey, rain, hey snow'. But now I think I'll explore each EP thoroughly.

8. open for business- I will say I havent used most of its features so thats why its so low on the list
7 .nightlife- honestly i find no use for this expansion imho, i think ive only been downtown once or twice. I do like the chemistry thing i think that gives a nice touch but other than that idk
6. bon voyage- Its very nice unless you dont have vacation days from your job
5. freetime- I like the fact that if you gain skills or get an interest in something new a sim will greet you and let you go onto there lot to practice that said skill, also love the new items! (favorite thing is ballet :lovestruc )
4. university- you are in university for a LONG while so that's a bit of a downside and if your like me your sim always has to pass finals with an a+ it gets hard. But that's the fun part! if your tired of your usual gameplay definitely get this.
3. seasons - I love love love seasons, it adds so much realism into the game! not a huge fan of plantsims but i dont mind them.P.S LOVE THE PENGUINS :lovestruc
2. apartment life- i literally use an apartment in almost every gameplay, not ideal for a huge family but nice to start off. Also the world it comes with is the only world i use
1. pets- Omg i love pets. i HAVE to get a dog when i first start my family its essential. And you just get connected to them like any other sim. When your pet dies you will definitely feel it. p.s werewolf is a nice plus! PP.S HAVE YOU SEEN A TODDLER CUDDLE A DOG

The sim does not, in fact, need vacation days from work to use the BV vacation. The vacation is treated like any other community lot visit - the family leaves for vacation and comes back on the same day on the home lot.

No use for Nightlife? You don't date your sims? I feel so bad for them! Outings also came with Nightlife - great way to keep up with your friends all in a bunch, and if you play multiple households for building connections between houses.

Uni doesn't take that long if you use community lots a lot. Skilling is enabled on community lots, so you'll find that also helps with the grades. But after you've played for awhile the grades get to be too easy, and then there's lots of time for parties and social interactions and dates and drama, drama, drama.

Explore more. Good to see Pets at the top of somebody's list - so many people were disappointed by it.

yeah i tend to stay on my lot
i thought you had to have vacation days or youd get fired sorry i wasnt sure
and no i kind of just use a premade sim to date my original sim... oh wow im boring! my sims are all living boring perfect lives XD
i really should go out more and use the date option thank you actually! and loved pets best one imo

is it really simming if you don't download or use cheats?
 

seasons: really changed the atmosphere of the game by simulating weather. It made each day feel different despite the skill grinding and inevitable abandonment of that sim when we move onto the next generation of sim produced by that family... Also those season-oriented interaction bonuses and taking into account how juicing buffed sims was pretty accurate to some extent.

Freetime: it's seasons part 2 because they were so generous with Seasons! I didn't like being reminded of my sims constantly losing hobby enthusiasm though. They don't _not like_ a hobby anymore just because they're busy with something else in life. the DIY car is so much better than most of the NL cars at an affordable price.

Uni: after a few plays, YA takes too long, trapped with HW and schmoozing with unimportant sub-hood sims. They don't even keep what they earn when they return to mainhood. *Flaps sim arms* When do I adult?! I fast forward through YA to get that 9th level job immediately out of uni + early married, preggers, retired -- because at that point I'm tired of that sim.

NL: it should be considered base game part 2 because it's pointless to simulate w/o chemistry and going "out." I use DD (came with this and Celebration) and stopped playing with any other installments besides seasons, terrible. I know.

ofb: i don't like leaving my sims out on community lots out that long, let alone paying uncontrollable sims that are easily fatigued and have mood swings because motive decays fast. $ is not an issue in the sim world. the struggle for OFB career LTWs lies between maxmotives and using only your family sims. 1. You hate them less if they complain. 2. They complain less because you've worked on their skills. Good story building and something new to sims series

Least favorite was pets:
novelty. buggy. "I don't have pets in rl but love animals this is amazing!" "your pet sims will like pets too." They don't do much. Wait, they're all employable?! Cool, but what are we doing in sims that it's so hard to earn $? They had a good number of pet breed presets but the sliders were disappointing. the idea to play to unlock all layers/ patterns/ collars instead of getting the pet you want now made no sense -- a neon green and polka dotted pet is not better than a striped blue pet making this the least rewarding EP.

stuff packs are meh, I'm looking for interactions that feed the game experience, not hit or miss visuals I can choose to download at will on fansites. objects are already included in EPs however some of these caught my eye/ aided sim-story:
-family fun
-celebration!
-teenage style it's a dollhouse sim, it should be about them.

I used these the most:
-kitchen and bath
-ikea

underwhelming stuff:
-glamour life - it promised a lot of lux but highend is very achievable with decent build skills and downloading
IMO the clothes patterns were showy and most of the colors were not glam
-H&M it's probably just me, I didn't feel like H&M was well incorporated into the sim world.

Mansions and Gardens disappointed me. Crumpled and not finished, a lot of stupid things, not a single tree. Styles are good, but many do not have enough for a full set. Bright, colorful, interesting, but ... good-bye could make 100%
But overall, in every EP and SP to a lot of stupid and unnecessary things that do not even know where to use.

After finally playing all the EPs and SPs now for a couple of years (I'm a late bloomer past Seasons ) , I still think Seasons is my favorite. Even though snowing will still initially freeze my game for a couple of seconds, it's fun to see a change of seasons in my game, and change seasons around to match the hood.

I do like Freetime. All the silly details about the hobbies and the annoying pitches for the magazine ... meh. Those are a nuisance to me. I just like HAVING the hobbies; having more things for my Simmies to do.

I have trouble picking just one from this bunch: University, Nightlife (I can't imagine the game without driveable cars now), and Open for Business. They all tie for third. I'm wordy enough in my posts! Let's just say each brought some very different and enjoyable aspects to this game, and I can't imagine the game without them.

Bon Voyage, Egads. Bon Voyage. The start of the Suckyrom era, which still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But it seems like one of the more-glitched expansions to me. Of the very few times really freaky things happened in my and my daughter's games (the Tour Guide calling my Sim or the Witch Doctor going for a stroll on one of my daughter's lots, for example) most have been BV-related. Coincidence? Maybe.

And then there is Freezy the Wonder-Housekeeper. Building hotels is quite the challenge because of Freezy who, just as you think your hotel is good to go, will often stand there like a rock until you figure out what's bothering this NPC, and that can take some time.

I like BV in terms of general gameplay. I really do. But this EP always concerns me a little. This slips into fifth because despite Freezy, I really do like building hotels. But barely over the next EP, which is

Apartment Life. Another EP that is really fun to play, but glitched as anything. CC mods have helped considerably, but it seems that every few times I'm playing an apartment, I have to fix something. Usually, it's a Sim that has moved on but doesn't want to leave (move_objects), or a stuck Sim or newspaper.

The witches and warlocks are nice, but EA, you COULD have made a new EP or SP and devoted more time and care to them, adding much more cool stuff! (Glowers at EA).

This EP had so much potential, but has so many problems. It could have used a few more months of troubleshooting. And I admit, this last EP makes me a little sad because EA could have done so much after this EP, but chose to try burying the series instead.

Pets. I write heresy, but honestly, I'm not a cat or dog person. Now if this EP did more with horses (like Sims 3) or much more than it did with birds (I like birds), or did a farm sort of theme, I would have moved this up to a clear second or third, glitches and all. And Pets also has lots of fun glitches. The one time my game had problems installing, it involved Pets. And I'm not a werewolf fan. If someone went up to me and threatened me to uninstall an EP or my real-life motives would forever stay red, it would be Pets. Sorry, Pets fans.

________________________________________________________

SPs

Favorites: Ikea, H&M (there are actually some nice clothes in this one) and Kitchen & Bath.

OK. but not great: Celebration, Teen Style, Glamour Life and Mansion & Garden. (Not really into Second Empire stuff, though the Moroccan and Art Deco stuff is nice.)

Not really crazy about: Family Fun Stuff and lastly, Happy Holidays (Santa and Baby New Year lose my interest after a while, and Santa can glitch and glitch badly, and it's a real PITA to fix).

Is M&G glitchy?
 

I have all the EPs and most SPs but have never gotten M&G because of hearing how buggy it is. I do like it and would have gotten it long ago except for fear of bugs. But now I'm looking through some lots and there are so many gorgeous ones that require M&G I'm rethinking it.

Look at this gorgeous Victorian beach boardwalk lot by ruthless_kk, so pretty! :lovestruc I think those are M&G roof pieces though and it would totally crash my game if I tried it.

And Jo is killing me dead with all of her amazing lots, especially Magic Island.
Can I live without that? I'm not sure I can.

So just how bad are the M&G glitches? I wonder if all the problems I heard about were due to people not having AL, so maybe it's not so bad after all? Any input is appreciated.

What bugs? I've never noticed any, so it can't be that bad. You know you want the lot... *tosses in free cookies* :D

PS. If you mean 'features' like the sun salute and flower sniffing, there are mods for that.

Glitches I've heard about are sims disappearing, game freezing and old glitches that had been fixed in patches returning. I do have mods for the salute and sniffing - I already dl'ed any M&G mod I thought I might want in case I ever got it.

*munches cookies* But I do want the lot, I want ALL THE LOTS!!1

Ok, I'll pencil it in my Christmas list and make sure to back up just in case it gives me problems. Thanks for pushing me over the edge, Jo.

No, I've never had anything like that. I've had M&G ever since it came out and noticed nothing. Hadn't even heard of those things happening. I love M&G, it has the best plants. Hehe, no worries, I always push people to get it ALL

Favorite: Nightlife Because of cars

Least favorite: Can't remember which EP it is, but it is the one that created an army of townies. Every time I ran sims 2 another five townies were created. Those townies gave me nightmares! They were everywhere!!!

AL introduced social townies, lots of old ones. <_< That's why empty templates are a thing, install and walla! No townies.

I know, thanks. Initially it was a problem.

Speaking of AL, I'm considering removing it (as well as FT) from my TS2 setup. Other than the obvious stuff (such as apartments, hobbies, and witches), what would I be losing by jettisoning those two EPs?

Secondary aspirations, aspiration perks, the Newsons and Goodies, networking.

Out of those, the only one I really use is aspiration perks. The question is, is keeping aspiration perks worth keeping the nuisances that come with those two EPs?

I'm sure there's other things I'm not getting off the top of my head. Look in the EP guides, and look for mods that relieve the things that annoy you. At this point, anything that annoys anybody that can be modded out, somebody's modded out.

Ok, here's my list:

EPs
1) Nightlife: I love everything that came with this EP, from the disco objects to Mrs. Crumplebottom. I've been playing for a while without attaching any Downtown, but I've always used all the interactions introduced and the Dates; now that my game is stable and clean, I also make my Sims going to downtown quite often;
2) Seasons: it was quite hard to choose the best one, Seasons would have won if it wouldn't be for the heavy winters my SIms always go through. I love the Seasons and the way they affect the gameplay; now that I'm playing in RIverblossom, I'm also enjoying more harvesting and fishing. My favourite feature is the fall skill boost :D
3) University: not all my Sims go to University (usually only if I have too many teens to take care of), but I couldn't live without the carrers it introduced (and their rewards!).
4) Free Time: I didn't like the EP at te beginning, I thought that adding a completely new neighborhood was useless since the EP is more focused on new activities/interactions rather than new gameplay features. I love all of 'em, from sewing to play the violin, except for the sports related ones (never made my Sims play Football or Basketball, I even forget there're objects for those).
5) Apartament Life: I really like the idea of living in an apartment, and the related interactions are really nice. Never had the opportunity to undestrand how the social groups works, so everytime I use the "gesture" and "tell a story" interactions it's a boost; fair enough, I don't want anymore townies in my neighborhoods (thank God we have mods for all of them);
6) Bon Voyage: I like the 3 vacations places, but my Sims never go on holiday. That's it.
7) Pets: Same for BV: lovely cats and dogs, but I don't like having them at home. I wanna try again, anyway.
8) Open for Business: this is the worst EP for my gamestyle, everytime I've tryed to run a business I ended up using cheats and having Sims without family/social life. I appreciate everything that come with is EP, but the main feature it's no suitable for me.

Stuff Packs
I'm not gonna write any comment just because, apart from M&G and Happy Holiday, they just introduced objects and clothes. I'll put as first the one I use more:
1) Ikea
2) Mansion & Garden (not only the small features but also the wonderful roofs/outdoor items)
3) Glamour Life
4) Celebration!
5) Teen Style
6) Kitchen & Bath
7) H&M
8) Holiday Pack(s) (never use this, nor objects neither special interactions)
9) Family Fun

I am just writing best to worst
1. Free time
Honestly I love the items. I am fine with a new neighborhood because I rarely play in ea's neighborhoods anyway
2. Apartmentlife
More things to decorate and my sim is ever alone c':
3. Pets
I like giving elder and lonely sims a pet as company also to boost a bit of the social interaction.
4. Seasons. Winter. Summer. Green people.
You get the thing.
5. University
Though I hardly have gotten a sim through without dying... do I still have it fine
6. Nightlife
Cars.
That's all.
7. Bon voyage
I do use the furniture but my sim never go vacation. I would have loved a stuff pack with furniture from the whole world though.

Stuff packs:
1. IKEA
It looks modern
2. Family fun
My kids always have themed rooms c':
3. Teen style
I love personalizing teens
4. Kitchen and bath
More modern stuff
5. Mansion and garden
Idk
It is just there and I properly use stuff from it without noticing.
Rest
Holiday packs, glamour life, H&M, Celebration
What was this again? I properly used a bit from each without realizing but honestly... I don't really use them that much :/

My list of favorite expansion packs/stuff packs would look exactly like this! Only, I would place Seasons higher and university lower.

M&G stuff's "bugginess" is way overstated. I don't have any issues with it.

I like all the EP's, and "stuff" packs. They all add something to the game. Every little bit helps. The only thing I would've liked to see would be a "Back to School" EP. You can make your own, I did, but it's a pain to do! I actually have a functioning elemenary school, and a functioning High school in my "Simsylvania" hood (Go SIMBERWOLVES!). Unfortunately, I don't have that particular hood on my hard drive right now.

"Pets" is probably my least favorite, however, I'd miss it if it weren't there. My Sims play with the strays, then send them on there way.

I actually named my real (non-sim) kitten "Noodle", after a cat in the game!

Ranking my stuff packs and expansions based on ones I have. I own quite a few, and still do. Been playing about 9-10 years now, more or less, and I still love it and can spend an entire day playing. Without further ado....

EXPANSIONS:

1. Apartment Life: Yes, this has got to be my favorite of them all. My favorite part is the Witches, but I also like that I can give my Sims a place to live without having to spend crazy amounts of money on a small, dopey little house with whatever they have to start out with. Belladonna Cove is a cute little city, but I find the characters a bit dull (except the Cordial sisters).

2. Nightlife: This came with my game because I got Double Deluxe and I honestly cannot imagine my game without it for this purpose. I love that you can visit places, I love that you can customize community lots, I like that there are cars, and I love the attraction/dating system they put on it. However, I think the vampires are EXTREMELY campy. I even downloaded custom skintones and eyes to make them look at least a bit more "natural", but even still, I have no vampires in my game and I really don't see a need for them. I also like to let my older Sims die off like they would in the real world, not torture them by making them live for all eternity. One other issue is how Sims can get "furious" at each other... the developers could have made it more realistic. I can see being mad for a long time at a partner you caught cheating, but for watching them in their window through a telescope? Or for a date that just didn't go well? Please. No one spends a lifetime angry at that stuff.

3. Seasons: I love this because it gives a realistic feel to gameplay with the seasons. I also LOVE the gardening feature - I have tried to make an effort so most of my families grow their own food or fish near a body of water. Plantsims are also very interesting to play, I've had several in my game up until more recently. When I had Riverblossom Hills, I added more to it. I know the intention was to make it a "country village" but I felt it just needed... more. It looked so naked with all those farm fields laying about. One thing I don't like is that the seasons can be a pain to change if you suddenly feel the need to do so - if it is winter on a lot, the snow will stay there for a VERY long time before the new season takes effect. The leaves are also annoying in the fall, and I always hire a gardener or butler to come clean them up (or have a Witch do the spell to remove them). In summer or winter, you get dreaded heatstroke or freeze up. In my game, however, heatstroke is more commonplace, and I HATE when the children get hot because once the warning is up "cool them down or you'll get paid a visit from the Social Worker", you barely have enough time to comply. So, this sounds dark, but I use Rodney's Death Creator and just make the overheated kid die of disease. I've not-so-affectionately called this "heat disease". If you don't do this, definitely have the Secondary Aspirations on and select "Plead with Social Worker" as a reward to use and it buys you time.

4. Pets: I love animals, so, no surprise here! In the game though, pets are a blessing and a curse to be honest. They age at a different time than the Sims do - they age a day at 11am daily while Sims age up a day at 6pm, so it's something to watch. I love having a male and female of either cat or dog in a house so they can breed - if a family is poor, they can just sell the puppies or kittens to get income if their job isn't doing it for them. I don't like, however, when the dogs come digging in the front yard - it's a pain and happens a lot. Also, becoming a werewolf is VERY difficult without cheats. I've only had 1 (yes, 1) werewolf in my game, ever. Like the vampires in Nightlife, I don't really care for them much and don't ever intentionally make them if I don't have to.

5. FreeTime: This expansion I could do without, but one thing I really find useful from this expansion is the Lifetime Aspiration system and that you can get a Secondary Aspiration OR rewards that go with your current one. As mentioned, you can buy time from the Social Worker if your children are suffering heatstroke, and if you have someone with the Family aspiration or this as a secondary, you can select "Plead with Social Worker" and she will give you 24 hours (minutes in our time) to improve conditions and make it so your kid is at normal temperature. FreeTime's craft stations make it so, if you have OFB installed, you can sell goods in a business, which I find cool. The careers are also awesome and noteworthy, here. Other than that, it is somewhat boring - all it does is add objects and certain things that make the game easier.

6. University: Education is important, but this game is very unrealistic about its approach. First off, the life stage Young Adult is stupid - why can't they just have them play out the first 3-4 days of their normal adulthood in college (to represent the proverbial 4 years in college). The majors they have with the game are...bland to say the least. I downloaded a mod for more realistic majors for my game so I don't have to put up with premade crap. Also, if a teenager ages into an adult without college, they cry for like 2 DAYS of game time over it - really, Maxis? I also REALLY don't like the Zombies - we get it, you had to add another life state, but this is more for the people who use their games to make videos (Night of the Living Dead remake, anyone?). I respect my dead Sims WAY too much to just make them wander the earth searching for nothing but brains - I have no zombies at all in my game. Honestly, the only good things in this expansion are the Careers and the instruments they have available. I can definitely do without this expansion.

As for the stuff packs, I can DEFINITELY do without them, given I have custom content downloaded. Despite this, my top 3 are: H&M Fashion Stuff (good for OFB), Mansion and Garden Stuff (I love building my own houses) and also Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff (remodeling is fun). My least favorite are: Family Fun Stuff (if I see one more dragon costume, I'll flip), Teen Style Stuff (except for Goth, the styles aren't really "real" - 'Elite' is Girly, and 'Thrasher/Surfer' makes no sense unless you're in Cali or something, like at least make it officially a Skater theme!) and Celebration Stuff (the decorations are so tacky and the wedding dresses are so tasteless).

Season has to be my favorite expansion pack...

Apartment Life is good but why did they lower the size of the font!!! (At least there a mod for it)

FreeTime is okay but it just felt bit pointless

Pets I just hate that expansion pack, I don't really get it. If can add wants & fears for pets then I might like it,

I just hate having dogs digging me f-ING house!

In general, it's hard to decide because most of the time I like one feature of a pack but absolutely hate another...

What is your most favourite/least favourite expansion pack, and why?
I'm gonna go with Bon Voyage as favorite, because you can live at the beach and swim in the ocean and travel, or Open for Business because of the endless possibilites for stores.
Least favorite would be University, Apartment Life or Freetime. The first two because I never play in dorms/apartments, the last one because except the cool new hobbies, it doesn't add much to the game play for me and I don't care about the hobby enthusiasm.

What is your most favourite/least favourite stuff pack, and why?
Fave is probably Happy Holiday Stuff because I love christmas, or Mansion&Garden because it adds more realism (heater and stuff). Oh, and H&M because more stuff for your stores!
Least favorite is Family Fun, 'cause I don't like the furniture.

If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be?
Oh god. I guess...
Bon Voyage
Open for Business
Pets
Seasons
Nightlife
Freetime
University
Apartment Life

Stuff packs is too hard to decide.

If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?
I would remove Apartment Life or University. I wouldn't miss apartments or universities, 'cause I never play them. But there are some objects and small features I really like...

Nightlife >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> rest

Hey guys, what is the worst pack, clothing wise? I really wanna know. Also, best pack, too.

I already posted some of my opinions on the EPs and SPs, but I might as well have a proper entry here. I'm prepared to be roasted!

What is your most favourite/least favourite expansion pack, and why?
My favorite EP is Seasons, which allows for gardening and fishing, providing more variety in terms of income sources and lifestyles, and I like the changes in weather as well. It brought some of my favorite careers and career rewards, introduced the stackable inventory, and payment of all of your bills at the mailbox without searching for them yourself (oh, how I wish I could do this in real life). Overall, I think it's the best EP for what it offered for gameplay - it's useful for a variety of settings (medieval, modern farms, etc.).

My least favorite EP, as I'm sure other members have heard me talking about, is FreeTime. I find the hobby system poorly implemented - I would've wanted certain hobbies separated like Film and Literature, some hobbies are shafted in terms of activities, I find the overall enthusiasm system invasive with the constant wants and interest-enthusiasm bleed, and dislike the way hobbies and interests don't work together in a logical manner.

What is your most favourite/least favourite stuff pack, and why?
Mansion and Garden, IKEA, and Kitchen and Bath tie for my favorite SPs. M&G is practically an EP disguised as a SP, and IKEA and K&B are useful for modern lots. My least favorite SP is Holiday - the theme is rather limited and its features don't fit my playstyle or preferences at all.

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

• Seasons - fishing, gardening, weather, leftovers, new jobs, moonwalking penguin
• Nightlife - new aspirations, dates, downtown, chemistry system, new interactions, the fury
• OFB - crafting stations, talent badges, businesses, subhoods
• Apartment Life - This is mainly because I like apartments and the AL bookcase skills. Why ever did they think that we need even more townies at this point though?
• University - I mostly play them for the story-value of sims attending them and not the default gameplay itself, which I've heavily modified to my liking, but I like the LTW feature the most.
• Pets - This would've been higher on my list but I find it somewhat lacking in implementation. I'm also confused why the furniture looks more The Jetsons instead of something like TS3's Farm Fresh Folk Set (though I guess that's in Seasons anyway); it's useful for certain settings, but I'm curious as to how Pets made them go for this specific aesthetic.
• Bon Voyage - I'll be honest - I use BV more like a SP (especially for the camping/mountain themes) and like it primarily for allowing us to walk to lots. I'm not fond of beaches or vacations either, so it doesn't suit my playstyle. The Unsavory Charlatan also seems to have a one-sided fixation on me, which was funny until he actively stalked my sims around.
• FreeTime - Elaboration below.

Stuff Packs:

• Mansion and Garden - I love the roof angle adjuster.
• IKEA
• Kitchen and Bath
• H&M Fashion
• Teen Style Stuff
• Glamour Life Stuff - I think the bedroom set is all right, but I haven't used the clothes that much.
• Family Fun Stuff - I'm okay with the medieval children's bedroom set (not my style so it's hardly used), though not a fan of much else.
• Celebration - I'm generally not fond of the objects' color schemes in-game and the items don't see frequent use either.
• Happy Holiday - I never installed this since I don't particularly want nor need its features.

If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?
FreeTime (you knew it was coming). I love the idea, but as I mentioned, the execution was lost on me, and I wish it wasn't. My favorite feature from this EP is the option to have secondary aspirations, I like the Indie Wave radio station, and some of the additional activities are interesting, like pottery and repairing cars.

Still, there are several things that weigh it down and asides from the shoddy hobby system, it seems to be a matter of playstyle. I prefer gameplay on the slightly more challenging side and FT has features that don't see any use in my games at all - LTA permaplats, aspiration benefits, and genie lamps have been banned among other things. I might have been more amenable if you could choose the benefits instead of the ladder system they chose to implement. I'm not fond of the BFF system and most of the career rewards pale in comparison to the previous ones. There are also a few other minor qualms, like the attraction to and disengagement from the toddler activity table and how they broke contacting NPCs through the phone. Some of these are fixable through mods, but the hobby system affects the want trees, which are more difficult to tune.

This easily could've been one of my favorite EPs if it weren't for all these problems - I loved the potential but not the execution.

University is my least favorite. I've never had the desire to play around with it much and it's just kinda boring.
I have a love hate relationship with Pets, love because I'm a "omg puppies and kittens" kinda person but hate because that's really its only appeal. Open For Business is okay, I like the features it has and god I love Servos so much

I'll probably love Seasons and Apartment Life until I die.

Nightlife is essential. That's all I have to say. As for the Freetime and Bon Voyage, I love them too, but never as much as Seasons and AL

I've heard that Uni in TS2 isn't that good. I have Nightlife which I highly recommend.

Well, you didn't hear that from me! A lot of people don't like it, but I'm convinced that this is usually because they're not approaching it on its own terms.

First of all, time moves differently there (unless you have an age mod that greatly extends normal sim lifespans, like Almighty Hat's "It's the Proportion). University is on a completely different time scale. If it moved at the same pace as the main neighborhood, you wouldn't have time for anything except Grinding for Grades, and what fun would that be?

University isn't about getting the grades. It's about splashing out, trying new things, really getting to know your sims. Unlike other sims, YAs have a game mechanic for natural character change and development - the opportunity to change aspiration at the beginning of Junior Year. YA sims have time to do proper courtship and engagements, rather than the rush to get married in the bathroom at 2AM that I'm always seeing other people do. They have time and space to write novels, start a garage band and go out to have gigs, have as many first dates as a Pleasure sim can stomach before finally growing up and settling down to a new Fortune aspiration. They can take craft stations with them and make stock for their future store. Heck, they can start the store! Or they can just party all the time. Or they can grind for grades. Or they can invite their families over a lot. The goals the game sets are easy, so you set your own. The more active sims you have in University at the same time, the more fun you can have; and if, in the end, you find you've got too many sims to play in the main hood - graduate them or drop them out and turn them into townies.

Some people, of course, don't like any of that, and that's fine, too. But don't take anybody's word for it. Try it for yourself. If you turn out not to like it, or to like parts of it and not others, that's what mods and cheats are for.

My favourite EP could be Open For Business : badges are great, the business system is well programmed even if you need some mods (like any TS2 EP) to work 100% properly, the subhood Bluewater Village is nice (finally we have the Landgraab family !), some CAS elements may be too tacky nowadays but default replacements can solve the problem. I don't like custom careers so the 'employee career' is essential to me. Oh, and servos of course.
My second favourite is Seasons and my third is Nightlife.

My least favourite is clearly Free Time : Desiderata Valley kinda bore me, hobbies system could have been way better, the science hobby is a bit forgotten, there is not enough new objects, secret hobbies lot are useless to me. The worst part : you can't assign a hobby to your sim, the game decides for you ! Really, EAxis ? This EP needs a lot of correcting mods to be logical, consistent and fun...

Least - Bon Voyage and Pets. After a few times I stopped taking vacations and having pets. Pets also seems like it was really done half-assed. There's not really anything BESIDES pets and related things, unlike every other EP. It's more like an SP in a lot of ways. It has a few things of new content, but not very good - like the stuff that looks like how people in the 1930s-1950s thought thing would be like now.

I have a hard time choosing which ones I like the best, because I like features from all of them. The one(s) I would not manage without would be AL and (M&G) because of all the neat storytelling and decorating help I've gotten from those two (shiftability and the freezer clock mod based on witch spells are a must for taking pictures and decorating, and the plants are great for taking pics in a CC-light game). I don't use witches or apartments much, but I did try them out.

I think my least favorite may be BV and Uni solely based on the main features, because I hardly ever use them any longer (haven't played Uni or vacations in ages). However, I probably use a ton of the other features they offer (a lot of the furniture is quite neat), so I don't feel buying them was wasted. Same with pets. I don't use pets that often, and find strays very annoying, but I do like that I can use pets if I want to (I've used birds and hamsters for my story, so I guess I do use the features a bit, and the odd story or picture have included cats or dogs over the years). I think that's my main con with most of the packs - I don't use much of the actual features they come with (any longer), but I still use objects and functions from those packs a lot. I've avoided using weather from Seasons too (because of pink-flashing issues), but would probably have used it more often if it wasn't such a graphic problem. There's a lot of other neat features from Seasons, so it's not that big of an issue.

Basically, there are things I like or dislike with all the packs, but I wouldn't want to be without any of them. Not sure which stuff pack I like best or least either, but I have used several of the items some or another time while playing. I probably use the features from FSS and GL the least, but I used to love the dragon/princess bedrooms for kids. I think I've used several items from the other stuff packs fairly regularly, both in a CC-light and CC-heavy game.

I haven't had the graphics issues. Nightlife is important so you don't have to have them walk or wait for the stupid taxi/have the carpool sitting there obnoxiously honking the horn.

Overall, this thread is in pathetic shape. Here are some of my thoughts on it:

How dreadful! This thread is dead!

...Jokes aside, I can't really pick my favorite EP anymore, but my least favorite is Pets, followed closely by Bon Voyage. Pets is a big disappointment (I guess making pets from scratch ate development time for actually fleshing them out), while Bon Voyage's content isn't really relevant in my regular gameplay. My favorite stuff packs as of now (in no particular order) are M&G, Ikea, K&B and H&M (they got better at them as the game went on). The rest are pretty niche for me.

I like K & B & Ikea. M&G is more an EP than a SP. Teen Stuff, Family Fun and the Holiday one are pretty much a waste.

There's so much... In Sims games, each pack usually adds something incredibly useful. Nightlife adds cars, Open For Business adds the ability to make any food at any time of day, Bon Voyage lets you choose which Sims will go downtown, etc. So many little quality of life features that don't always get advertised or first come to mind with the theme. So it's hard for me to pick just one.

Bon Voyage seems to be one of the least favourite expansion packs overall, but I must say that I love what came with this ep!
Even though the holidays are not as adventurous and exciting as they could have potentially been, this expansion pack added beach lots and all the beautiful interactions attached to them. The build mode fences and the buy mode sets of furniture are necessities for me: they are so useful and I specifically like to decorate my house with objects related to Asian culture. The tropical objects are very vibrant and I often use them to decorate backyards, pools, community lots near the beach. The mountain wallpapers are great for creating cozy cottages and bungalows, especially if your neighborhood is set in a cold environment and it would only seem logic to use wood logs to build houses.
Bon Voyage has very specific sets of items and clothes, so it's really up to the player's taste to determine if this expansion pack is useless or essential.

I haven't played the later expansions from BV-AL very much, so I might have a heavy bias towards the previous expansions. That said, the only expansions I actually cared to buy were Nightlife, Pets and Seasons. At some point someone gave me one of those combo packs with the the Deluxe base game which included NL along with Uni, OFB, Family Fun stuff and Glamour Life stuff, so that's what I have most experience playing for a long time before deciding to complete my collection before life happened and I stopped playing. That said, I'll rank the EPs as I see them.

1. Seasons - I feel this pack ultimately is my favourite because it added many of the things I love into the game. Weather and changing seasons were great additions to the game, and I liked that you could customise the seasons in different neighbourhoods. I think some of the graphics were improved here too like pools. Leftovers are a mandatory feature for me now. I also loved gardening in TS1 Unleashed and Makin' Magic, so was very happy it was included here after my disappointment with Pets. I also liked the seasonal effects, particularly the faster skilling in Autumn. Of course I had a few gripes with it as well. Plantsims are too easy to make by mistake because ladybugs aren't as useful as they should have been, and while I think the ability to spawn plant toddlers is cool, I hate that they age straight to adult. I also really wish they had added the ability to swim in ponds as in Castaways (which uses a modified Seasons engine IIRC) and/or the ability to ice skate on frozen lakes. I really didn't like those huge skating rinks.
2. Nightlife - This is a close second to Seasons. Though I don't really care for the dating aspect, this added the attraction system which I think makes the game far more interesting and wouldn't want to play without it. It also added driveable cars which while I don't particularly like how driveways work, I think the various interactions that cars add makes up for it. I also liked that sims could go to work later or still go to work if they missed a carpool. Vampires are probably my favourite lifestate and though I would prefer if they had been given more special traits, mods do make up for that. Inventories were also introduced here and I think many of my favourite objects come from this EP. In an unmodded game though this EP had a lot of bugs and annoyances, Mrs Crumplebottom picks on people she shouldn't, and some things which were funny at first but quickly became annoying, people randomly kicking over trash and steal newspapers, the gagging and swooning.
3. Pets - I would put this much lower on the list but I wouldn't want to play without it in my game. Honestly I feel like this was a minimal effort EP. Though there is a lot of customisation in create a pet, I would have liked if a little more effort went into the other aspects because I barely ever used create a pet. At the very least I would have liked to see all the features from TS1 Unleashed brought forward, I missed the tricks (like cats playing the keyboard) and having them hunt various pests such as mice, gophers and rabbits. They also missed the racoon pest and the small pets like turtles and iguanas from Unleashed, it would have been nice to have more small pets like these. I also think it would have been nice to be able to befriend and even adopt the skunk, the racoon from Unleashed or even the Dragons from Makin' Magic. These are all the minimal things I wanted from it that we didn't get, but we did get the ability to teach cats to use the toilet, so I guess that's something. Though I don't care as much for it, I don't see why they couldn't have included the pet show stuff from Life Stories because pet shows were also a thing in Unleashed. For additional things not seen in Unleashed, I would have liked foxes, horses and various farm animals, or some more exotic animals like elephants and tigers.
4. Apartment Life - This is pretty high on the list more for secondary things and also because there are a good amount of mods that require it. I was extremely disappointed that only 4 families could live on an apartment lot, couldn't only rent apartments and the way roommates are handled (like pets!?) does put me off having them. Apartment lots should have had both community and residential functions, as most apartment blocks in real life have shops on the ground floor, and I think it should have been possible to visit apartment lots (if not residential lots too), and really, 4 sublots is ridiculous and I don't know why nobody has made a mod to increase this. While the reputation system and social classes do remind me of The Urbz, I don't particularly care for it.I like the magic but not particularly how it was implemented, and why this was shoehorned in here instead of an additional Magic EP or Freetime (it seems like something that would go with hobbies and the secret lots are like hobby lots) is puzzling to me. Something like celebrities in Superstar would have been a much better fit here. I think the alignments are dumb, playable evil witches don't really have any useful spells like good witches do so there's no real use in playing an evil witch. I would have preferred the spells to be more altruistic for good witches and selfish for evil witches instead, so both would be beneficial to gameplay, but in different ways. I also wish for Bonehilda here, and one that actually takes care of children like the TS1 version unlike the TS3 version or the spectral assistants. I do like some of the social interactions added here, babysitting, walking to work, toddlers being able to use some pet objects, and of course shiftables and deco slots.
5. Bon Voyage - To be honest I don't think I've played vacations much, but I do like the beaches and far eastern stuff a lot. Again I would have liked some features from Castaways here like supporting bigger neighbourhoods and lots without roads, as well as swimmable ponds and exotic animals. Also while mountain and tropical could be generic enough, the Far Eastern destination seems a little weird when your family has a similar background. I also missed the winter theme from TS1 Vacation with snowboarding and igloos, but I guess these should have been in Seasons instead. I also missed Volleyball on beach lots. The carnival games are also missing from TS2 and I would have liked to see them either here or in another EP. One of my main gripes though is the lack of support for pets and toddlers. I also don't like how limited building is on beach lots, I don't understand why they limited building on the beach. Many people like Bigfoot but I don't care much for him either, he is inexplicably talented in everything despite living in the middle of nowhere, and is severely limited as a sim. I would have liked to see a real lifestate like fairies or mermaids implemented here.
6. Open for Business - While having my sims run a business never really appealed to me, I do think this EP is fairly decent and does open up some gameplay options. I do like that sims can own community lots and have home businesses, but I don't like how EAxis didn't really design owned businesses to be visited by other families, while home businesses cannot be visited at all. This also introduced the talent badges system which I personally dislike. To me it doesn't make sense that someone who can use a computer just fine and/or has high logic can't operate a cash register. Overall though I think it would have been better to simply make them use the regular skills like charisma for sales and mechanical for robotics or simply rolled into a badge for business (bronze can use the cash register, silver can restock, gold can do sales) and the crafting go by skills instead (though robotics could be something a skilled toy maker could do!). It would have made a bit more sense having separate badges if one could train their employees for their role. Robotics is maybe the most interesting craft but were also a disappointment here. While having servos as sims makes them more flexible, they are essentially another sim you have to take care of and I don't think they should have normal sim aspirations unless they were modelled after the Bicentennial Man (which now that I think of it could have been interesting if one could upgrade servos to be more human over time if desired). The other robots are mostly useless and break too often. The flower arranging, cosmetology and toy making don't really add much to the game and I really could do without them.
7. University - I would have put this one much higher if I didn't absolutely hate how just about everything was implemented. I do however like many of the interactions added by this EP as well as the ability to form a band. This added cellphones which I quickly found necessary in my game. I don't like the fact that only teenagers can go to college and will age up even if they still have time left to be teens. I would have much preferred young adults to be an additional lifestage that all sims go through whether or not they go to college. I don't like that their age meter is replaced by semesters, this could have been implemented similar to seasons in the UI or simply on the grades panel. I also think adults and even elders should be allowed to do uni courses and also work while studying. I also think that if the college system wasn't so tied into aging, it could open up the possibility for a diligent students to write finals early or do "part-time" uni where they take longer to graduate but can work full-time or otherwise finish their studies on their own time. The majors and uni job requirements are completely nonsensical, eg. you don't need to go to uni to get into the medical career but you do for show business?? Also majors don't actually matter for getting you into a career, you just have to have gone to college, you could study Drama for the Natural Science career. Dorms and rented houses should have been available outside of uni, I don't see why a single adult or teen shouldn't be able to live in a dorm-like lot if they don't have much money. YAs also can't study without going to uni or have children or pets in the uni hood. I would have liked this EP so much if it wasn't horribly flawed by design.
8. Freetime - I would absolutely pull this EP if it weren't for some mods requiring it. The hobby system is useless and redundant when we already had underutilized interests in the game. The message spam is annoying, I don't think the hobby lots are particularly useful, I don't like that there is no way to choose the one true hobby for a sim like attraction traits and aspiration. Without that annoying hobby system, all the other things I do like could have been a kind of hobby stuff pack instead. I actually got this pack after TS3 and thought tinkering was actually useful, it isn't. I fail to see what the point of the hobby system was and how it actually adds to gameplay that actually warranted an EP. The secondary aspiration is about the only other feature I would want, but even so I could do without it.

For stuff packs, I don't think I actually used most of them so I won't rank them because I don't actually know what's in all of them. I do really like the furniture from the IKEA pack and M&G for the green energy stuff. The H&M pack probably had the best clothes and though I mostly used CC clothes, I think it was a nice touch that they added the items to create an H&M store in the game. I also liked the holiday pack because of Santa and the New Year's party, but I think it should have been combined with celebration stuff personally, though I don't think I actually liked anything in that one. I also think the IKEA and H&M packs should have been free promotional packs personally since they're essentially ads for the real companies.

My favorite EP is either Seasons or Nightlife. So original right? Both of them add so much to the game they're literally essential. It's like I can't imagine playing without having Downtown or having weather so that's a sign those are great packs.

My least favorite is Freetime. Such an annoying and useless pack honestly. All my thoughts about it has probably already been said in this thread but the hobby system sucks and it just adds such annoying additions to the game, like the hobby idle animations and the movies on TV. *shudder* Why do they have to be so loud...?

I feel like talking about EPs today, let's do a ranking here.
I honestly think a lot of EPs are overhated. The main feature may not be that good, but some of them add many more interesting things.

Top 1: I only played apartments once and don't really remember how they work, but my top 1 is still Apartment Life.
- Witches: they are the best, I just love them. I don't want to type 4 paragraphs about how much I love them, so let's continue.
- Furniture: don't ask me why but I just love the furniture??? The wall closet, that TV with shelves, that simple square coffe table, that modern library, the classic modular sofa, the socialite objects (gearhead ones are ugly though, I have to admit).
And other, but still very good, stuff:
- A lot of architecture items
- Ability to move wall objects up and down
- The playground set
- Spiral stairs
- The 3×3 aquarium
- The heater
- The cabinet with mirror with the new interactions for the sink.
And probably a lot of stuff I'm forgetting. It just added a lot of things the game needed. Well, enough of AL.

Top 2: Open for Business.
I probably like it as much as AL, but honestly, OfB alone wouldn't be really good, it needs the other EPs to have all its potential.
Well, the obvious feature, running your own business. What makes it so good is the variety you can have. Selling crafted things (from the crafting machines or even witch stuff), selling food, running a restaurant, a barber shop, a library, a pet shop... And a lot more I'm probably forgetting. Not to mention mods can make even more possibilities.
- The 3 crafting stations are still very good even if not used for a business. The snapdragons make life so easy... I love Servos, they are a nice addition to any family. And the toys are so fun, specially the evil versions.
- Some business perks are really useful even outside your business.
- There isn't a lot of furniture, but I like the Mission set. The windows and doors too.
- And the bathroom towels. It doesn't look important but I like it, specially because when OfB was released, K&B Stuff Pack didn't exist yet.

Top 3: I guess my top 3 would be Bon Voyage.
Honestly, I don't send my sims often on vacation, but there's still a lot of cool things in this EP: massages, learning teleportation, having Bigfoot in your family, the pirate ship, the rolling log, the sauna...
And the beach lots, of course. Great addition if you also have the Seasons EP.
And the jewelry, probably the best CAS addition from all EPs.
Plus a lot of good furniture and clothes, and architecture objects.

Top 4 goes to Seasons.
The seasons themselves and the weather can be really annoying sometimes, but that won't stop me from putting Seasons in top 4, as you can easily control all that with the weather machine (and with mods).
I do like seeing snow. And with the Holiday SP, it's almost a must.
Gardening is tiring, but I really like it. Being a Plant Sim makes it much easier. I use them as full time gardeners and then sell the vegetables and fruits to all the hood. The juices are also interesting.
And then, the kitchen deco, just like the bath deco from OfB, it was very needed.
Also the hot chocolate machine, I don't know, I just love it even if it's mostly the same as coffee
And let's not forget the careers. This is one of the only 3 EPs that add careers, and I love career rewards.

Top 5: Free Time.
I have to agree that the hobbies are annoying. Those messages telling you your sim is losing enthusiasm in X hobby appear too often, and they keep inviting you to the secret lots.
Now, the aspiration benefits are really good and I couldn't live without them. The Best Friends Forever thing too.
It also came with many careers and so many new objects: a new set for kitchen, baby and children objects, pottery, sewing, the model train, the lemonade stand, the ant farm, the soccer goal, the basketball court, the restorable car...
And the many new interactions, some of them exclusive depending on the sim's enthusiasm. But not all of them.
It also added more variety to the sim's wants, with both the secondary aspiration and the hobby related wishes. (Okay, hobbies actually flood the Sim's wishes but I just have a mod that reduces them.)
And I almost forgot the Genie came with this EP.
In short, you can get rid of the annoyances with mods and there are a lot of cool things to enjoy.

Top 6 will be Nightlife.
It was the first but not only EP to add cars. They are nice, but my fav car is the restorable one from Free Time.
The chemistry is something I can live without.
Restaurants are fine, just kinda not worth the money? I only really go to restaurants for dates and stuff.
I love dates, I like to make my couples keep the letters or roses from before they were married.
Vampires, they are cool but I think they are my least favourite life state. I hate that they lose their needs quite fast even if they are inside home, without windows and in the basement. It's also annoying that they can't work in normal careers properly (without mods). Well, at least there's OfB for that.
I like most of the furniture and clothes, and it has some great objects like the wall TV, the photo booth, the fire jet, or the bowling alley.

My 2 least fav ones: I don't think I can choose between the 2. They both have good parts.

- University: There's nothing I dislike from it. Most of my sims go to uni. As much as I like the new careers, the university life and the benefits from going to it, it didn't add much more. The medieval furniture, fountains and the mini-fridge are probably the most interesting items.
I like zombies, but they aren't as unique as the other life states. (Besides, zombies were re-added in FT and AL).
Understandable from the very first EP, but I'm sorry, you needed more content.

- Pets: The cats and dogs are cute and all that, but they are just... there. They are very good company to single sims, but having them in bigger families is just one extra annoyance, at least until they learn not to destroy everything. The womrats and parrots are nice, though. They don't need as much attention, and parrots are a fun way of skilling charisma.
I love werewolves. I would put this EP at the bottom if it wasn't for them.
The futuristic looking furniture doesn't look bad, but that's it, not many new items.
I have yet to try having a pet shop, may be fun.

And for Stuff Packs...
Top 1 would be Mansion & Garden. I love the climbing ivies and the other plants. I don't really like most of the architecture pieces, but they are there.
It added the tool to adjust roof angle, it was possible before, but with cheats.
The solar panels and windmill are really good so you can stop worrying about the bills. Then the ceiling fans, the lake fountain, and also some hairs and clothes that are pretty good.
But the best feature of M&G is definitely the "quarter tile placement" cheat. I can't live without it.
It added so many things, definitely the best SP.

If we count M&G as an EP... Then my fav would be either Holiday (I just love the Christmas vibes) or Kitchen & Bath (my bathrooms looked all the same before this SP).
My least fav is Family Fun. The themed bedrooms are a bit too much for me, I prefer my kids to have normal furniture, and then add some deco to make it look like a kid's bedroom.

Not really an EP but I hate Life Stories with a burning passion.

Apartment Life is the best in my opinion because it offers so much an because apartments are so common irl it is unrealistic not to have it in Sims 2.
Seasons is also a banger because it has seasons obv, it doesn't get boring, offers a countryside life in contrast with AL. Weather and seasons are also essiential.
Nightlife is also good for me because I'm extroverted and a city girl so I obv prefer tht kind of gameplay more.

University is boring af, it lasts for sooo long. Sims 3 did it better but uni parties in both games suck. As a uni student, it was a huge disappointment and even more depressing than real life lmao. Sims 4 is a master at parties because it can carry so many sims on a single lot so I assume that Sims 4 uni was the best,

My most favorite expansion pack is NightLife. The aspects of gameplay that it adds get integrated into people's daily life, as opposed to being reserved to a special mode, such as owned business or vacation.

The strongest part of this expansion is the design of lots. Downtown is large, the buildings vary in style and are quite detailed. Most of them are furnished with expensive items and include pleasant vegetation. Unexpectedly for the setting, Downtown includes small starter homes, which are the most beautiful and practical among all, with a fence for protection and a parking space.

NightLife is the only expansion where NPCs have received manual tweaking to their facial structure, clothing and relationships. The population is localized to its neighborhood, which aids in immersion.

The new entertainment objects feel solid, without significant bugs. Dining in restaurants is nice, it seems to be programmed well to avoid failures and force completion. Formal dating provides a realistic guide through this process. However, it also makes gaining aspiration and even wealth too easy. But every other expansion adds elements that make play less challenging. Non-romantic outings unfortunately do not progress organically. Attraction and Fury make relationships more dynamic.

The inventory system adds freedom of carrying value with the person on move out. Last but not least is the addition of cars, which remove dependence on the strangely ever present and free community carpools.

Not everything is great Downtown. I've already mentioned outings, which are scored only by relationship deltas and trigger members to move too often. It is far too difficult to have a successful outing without romance and realtime-with-pause commands. The vampyre life state, like the others, is unrealistic. Restaurants and Barista advertise their presence to patrons too much, but I'm not sure if that is a problem created by Open for Business.

My second favorite expansion is probably Seasons. It adds weather effects that people can experience every day, and the Leftovers option on refrigerators.

I've mostly forgotten exactly which small improvements or flaws were added with each expansion pack, because I've jumped from Basegame to Seasons, to FreeTime. I do remember finding the Base extremely difficult and bland.

I know literally NO ONE asked for it, but here is a list of the expansions, based in my opinion from best to worst, and why I think that way.

1- Nightlife
Ya know, a few years back I played the base game only, without Nightlife. It was WEIRD. I mean, I enjoyed it because, ya know, Sims 2, but it felt like something was... missing. I mean, that was probably because I had ordered both the Base game and Nightlife off Amazon, but Nightlife refused to be installed, but I digress. When I got the Ultimate Collection last summer, Nightlife became one of the two packs I used the most, along with the next one on the list. Nightlife's stuff is so great! I dress my Sims in Nightlife stuff all the time, I send my Sims Downtown all the time, they go on dates all the time... The great thing about this pack is that everything feels like a natural extension of the Base Game's mechanics, and I really understand why EA decided to package Nightlife with Deluxe and Double Deluxe.

2- FreeTime
A lot of people don't like this one, and I find that sad. Look, I know that Desiderata Valley is kinda boring, and that hobbies can be really intrusive. But I honestly don't mind. Yes, the hobby wants clutter up your sims' wants panels, but... it's kinda realistic? I don't wake up thinking "Hmm, yes, today I want to find my true love." I think "Hmm, today I want to go play Sims 2." Plus, the hobbies give such an interesting facet to your Sims. Coral Oldie likes to sew, Ophelia Nigmos likes to read, Hermia Capp likes to paint, etc. It's even nicer if it's something you wouldn't expect from them. Olive Specter, black widow and probable serial killer... loves to cook? I dunno, I wouldn't eat anything she makes for me. The uber-aggressive Tybalt Capp channels his anger into the guitar? Huh, okay then. Juliette Capp, the dignified heiress to the Capp family... is a die-hard gamer girl. And that's not even getting into everything else FreeTime adds, like the new careers, new CAS outfits, and the metric assload of new stuff added in buy mode, like the train table, restorable car, pottery wheel, sewing machine, violin, ballet barre...

3- Apartment Life
Maxis really went out on a bang for Sims 2 expansions, didn't they? Adding apartments finally allowed for proper urban gameplay, and they're quite fun to play with. I don't often dabble with supernaturals, but witches are quite fun mess around with. Belladonna Cove, while it may not be quite as lore-rich as the three base-game hoods, is still decently interesting, and it looks absolutely STUNNING. Add in the new CAS and buy mode objects, and you got yourself a pretty tidy package. Also, a funny anecdote- when I was around 5, I used to love watching my cousin play Sims 2, so she sent my family a copy of Sims 2 and some expansions. Now, what did she get us? The Sims 2 Deluxe, and FreeTime, and later on she sent us a copy of Apartment Life (which we never installed, and I only found years later.) She knew my tastes, even back then!

4- Open for Business
I'm rather fond of this pack... even though I've never really dabbled in the MAIN ASPECT of the pack. I've had Patrizio Monty manage a restaurant for a couple of days before I realized I wasn't doing a good job, and ended up selling it. I really need to get on with that someday. Anyway, you may ask why do I still like this pack? It's all the extras the come with it that seal the deal for me. The CAS content is quite nice, and even if you aren't running a business, the workbenches are quite fun to mess around with.

5- Seasons
Here's where I start getting less enthusiastic. Okay, Seasons has been growing on me- gardening is nice, the new careers are AMAZING. But again, I basically never use supernaturals, so I'll basically never touch PlantSims, especially since PlantBabies get screwed out of the Child, Teen, and Young Adult stages. And the main features, Seasons and Weather, don't affect the game as much as you think they would. Like, it's snowing? Okay, I guess you'll have to go inside once you start getting cold. It's really weird how easy it is to completely ignore the main feature.

6- Bon Voyage
Maybe I don't send my Sims on vacations enough. But the problem with this pack is that it does basically nothing if you aren't on vacation. I mean, there's beaches, that's cool? Jewelry, nice I guess? But the new buy mode stuff doesn't really belong anywhere outside the Vacation destinations or in the homes of VERY rich people. I mean, what is the average middle-class sim going to with a massage table? Or a sauna? Or a mahjong table? Or a goddamn pirate ship?! And then there's the vacations themselves, which for me, are just frantic rushes to get vacation mementos, interspersed with the exact same shit I do at home. Cool. Am I doing vacations wrong?

7- Pets
It sure does exist, doesn't it? Why does this pack feel so barren??? I'm baffled at what EAxis didn't include in this pack. Like a new neighborhood. Or ANY CAS CONTENT FOR HUMANS WHATSOEVER. And then there's the pets themselves. The pets are just sorta... there. I mean, they can get jobs, I guess. Because when I think of pets, I think about exploiting them for profit! Honestly, my hot take is that this is the WORST version of the Pets pack in the Sims series.

8- University
Uggghhhhhhhhhhh
Why does the game keep trying to shove college down my throat? It's worse than the hobby spam, in my opinion! Like, if you don't send a teen to college, they basically instantly have a mental breakdown upon becoming an adult, EVEN IF THERE'S NO COLLEGE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD! And I play rotationally to keep my sims' ages consistent. This means I HAVE TO SEND EVERY ONE OF MY TEENS TO COLLEGE IN ORDER TO NOT FUCK UP THE AGES. UGGGHHHH!!!! And then there's college itself. It's a repetitive, overly long slog of giving my sims too many skills and making them do too many assignments. Because if they don't pass, IT TAKES EVEN GODDAMN LONGER. And college is LONG. 24 days MINIMUM. Adulthood is by default 29 days! So you know how I said I play rotationally? I usually play 1 day rotations so play sessions are quick. But in order for the length of college to make any sense whatsoever, I have to cram an entire semester in one rotation! And I cram all my college sims into 3 dorms to make it so I don't have to play any MORE extra long rotations, but this means I can't dabble with Greek Houses! I genuinely dread the end of my rotations when I have to play my college sims. I genuinely hate this pack.

I don't know if the listing reflects my actual opinion of which pack I like the most (I'm really bad with ranking things), but at least it's some of my opinion on each pack.

1- Apartment Life (and M&G)
I love this one purely because it adds some features I can not live without for storytelling (if I can't freeze sims, taking pictures is 1000x times more difficult), and for the baby play items (I don't think they can be used without the M&G and/or AL packs? Either way, I have both, wouldn't part with either since most mods are based on these nowadays), but also for some playground items. That, and the shiftability function (makes my life much easier with the shifting OMSPs). I swear, this one is all in with the functions. M&G has some neat features too (it deserves a mention since it's kind of a mini-EP), and all those mods you end up possibly missing out on if not for these two...
I don't play with witches or apartments (have tried both earlier - prefer residential lots, and I think I was mostly over my supernatural phase at the time I installed AL, so didn't play too much with witches), and don't care for the AL neighborhood.

3- FreeTime
Hobby items. They add a bunch of fun features, and I love it. I mean, there's probably some clutter in the wants panel, but I don't mind too much. Breaks the monotony up a bit. The hobby people can go and lock themselves in on their respective hobby lots, though (and bring Humble). I don't want to see them (need to go find mods for that...). Couldn't care less about the neighborhood.

4- Open for Business
Work benches. What to do without them? I love playing with lots of kids, and they need toys - and the meager selection without the benches (flowers are also fun!) is not that great. There's a bunch of other things in this one, too (I think some cakes?). I've done some shop managing in "earlier times" and it can be fun. It's got some neat shelf functions as well, and the chill benches that looks good in cafes, whether they're just for set dressing or functional. I think Bluewater came with this one? Not sure if I've ever used it...

5- Seasons
Weather - meh. I had to turn it off for my game just to be able to run it decently enough, because snow always caused pink-flashing after a while, and temperatures were only an annoyance. I usually kept it perma-spring in that game except when I needed weather for something (it's nice as an option, but has a lot of downsides). Other than weather it's got some decent functions and of course outerwear as an extra clothing category comes in handy even without the weather. Gardening can be fun. Plantsims - I've played some with them, but the "sameness" and annoyance with the ages grows old pretty fast. Also can't be bothered with the neighborhood.

2- Nightlife
Cars. Not that I use them much, but when I need them, I'm really glad they're there. I think the pack has a lot more that I use without thinking - It's the first pack I installed after getting the game (I've had BG+Uni ALWAYS, got this one very shortly after), so really can't remember how simming was without it. Probably not too fun. I don't use Downtown.

6- Bon Voyage
Found vacations to be pretty broken. Tried it out a few times, but the family I used one of the times got borked pretty bad in one of the runs, and I don't think I've had any of my sims go on vacations since. Might have been before a patch (not sure). Anyway, I like a lot of the furniture (not too overly happy with some of the original colors, but recolored it's great), There are functions I like in this pack - items, the sea/beach (when I can be bothered to make lots with it, which is extremely rare), some clothes, so it's not like I hate it. But like with a lot of these packs I don't use the "main feature" (vacations).

7- Pets
I like the option of having pets. I just don't use them a lot. Could've had a few more pets, though (but at least it's better than a certain other game where you had to by a stuff pack to get rodents - not even getting birds!)... :/
Mostly I don't use them a lot because they get boring after a while, and rodents/birds/fishes (without mods) keep dying all the time (I swear, those things are impossible to take care of if you don't keep your eyes peeled on them 24/7. Mostly I add pets for storytelling or picturetaking purposes, but usually I don't. I had some fun with the werewolves back in the days, but don't think I've had any in my game in quite some time.

8- University
Loved it at the beginning (when it was my only EP), but after a while the constant nagging got to me. Haven't had a sim go to the Uni in ages upon ages. I think there's probably some decent stuff in there, but to me everything is mixed with the BG since I've never seen them separately. It's a decent Uni variation of the main games, though. It's just very naggy and a bit same-y when the game wants you to do it for EVERY-SINGLE-TEEN. And if they don't do it, they get "punished". Let them actually have a choice, and then we'll talk, okay?

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Most of these packs added either a function, some nice CAS content or buy/build content that I use or for some reason don't want to part with, and I've played with the full game since 2009 (my ancient laptop slowed down about 10 steps after FT, so installed the last 4 -I think?- packs when I got a new computer), so I've gotten used to having all the functions. There's also a limit to what I can remember came with what pack (especially when it's not marked ingame - CAS content is fine, but functions and buy/build is a bit iffy unless connected to an EP/SP. I honestly don't remember enough to tell what I'd be willing to part with, especially when I know there's things I want to keep in most, possibly all of the packs... Anyway, I've got the UC installed now (still have my CDs as backup), so it's all or nothing, I guess

Here is my ranking for the expansion pack
8: Pets
While I like cats, I don't really like the element of the game, the pet is annoying, the stray is annoying, it is basically annoying and I would remove it, If I Need Two to be removed then it is,

7 (tie) : Nightlife
While the aspect of attraction is my main love for this pack, I usually don't like everything else. I don't know, I just never tried it.

6 (tie) : University
I love building dorms and making greek, but the gameplay?. just sucks, I usually mess around with "Term Paper" and "Assignment" to mix the time between done and not. but it is still boring, every time My Student get enough Grade, I usually just fast forward until the Final Test. I rather my teen become adults without this university boring gameplay, I just regret making an University now I need to send all teens in my neighborhood to college so they would be "Happy"

5: Free Time
I'm sorry, but everything in the next list is just better than this, no matter what. Free time is still good, I love the aspect, the hobby is fun. is just fun.

4: Bon Voyage
Again, I'm sorry, This one was a little bit boring but I still put it more than free time, because building Hotels is perfection. I just love it, every time I send my sims on vacation, is always for a mixed reason, From Exploring to Dating. and then go to my "controversial" opinion

3: Season
It is fun, but I had almost zero activity other than gardening, yet only one household in my neighborhood to garden, It almost had nothing to offer other than the season for me, Probably because I didn't discover anything yet. also the temperature just.. I HATE IT, it is just not as fun as the next one in my opinion.

2: Open For Business.
I absolutely love it, Sometimes the career just sucks. but sometimes it really makes the fun. I had nothing to say other than making business is fun.

1:Apartment Life
Apartment play just really gets my mind. from the building aspect to the gameplay aspect, It doesn't do much in cas but hey! I don't even really care about my sims look

I would say my ranking would be as following... Best - Worst

1. would be apartment life... It is buggy as hell but I love being able to rent rooms and houses instead of buying a house directly cause it seems more realistic to me... Who moves out of home and directly buys themselves a home? Usually you live in a rented apartment... I love the addition of witches and the three types they have.. and I love the playground items! I wouldnt want to play without it

2. Seasons... Weather of course adds alot of realism and the items are nice... I don't care for Plantsims and winter is annoying but still without weather the game would feel... empty idk

3. Freetime... I like the LTP system and the new careers... AND MORE TOYS AND ITEMS FOR TODDLERS! The hobby items are neat too...

4. Pets... My neighboorhod is drowning in Cats! I have to add that I started to use pets more with mods now that kitten can have patterns and my cats can have fantasy colors and wings...

5. University... I like the between step of having my sims to go to collage and get faster a high level job

6. OfB... I didnt played with it at all yet but I planned to make shops for sims to buy them at a store instead from buy mode but my sims first have to reach adult age :D

7. Nightlife... Vampires are cool but I dont care for the rest except the social elements

8. Bon Voyage... Never play with it really... never travel... if I would have to uninstall something then it would be that pack... but there is no reason to uninstall anything

I wont say anything to the stuff packs cause I always saw them as waste of money and I always lended them from a friend and never bought them... (Except H&M and M&G to complete my installation but M&G didnt arrived to this day )
I also cant say anything to the hoods cause I ALWAYS play with costum hoods... never cared for the original sims and their stories...

Oh, I love rankings! I don't know why I'd never seen this thread before!
Anyway, here is my ranking (I'll go from least favorite to the best one imo)

8. Bon Voyage
When I used this EP for the first time, I really loved it. I remembered vacationing in the sims 1 and really loving it, so i really loved it in TS2. However, after playing it for so long, it kind of becomes somewhat pointless. I think I have the same opinion as many other people do. Unless I am working on a challenge or a specific gameplay idea, I never care for completing the vacations mementos. I like using beach lots in my main hood from time to time, but it never became a big necessity for me. I LOVE building hotels, but I never play them because sending my sims on vacations feels like "wasted time" to me. After discovering all three hidden spots, I don't feel like doing it again and again. It was fun in the beginning but now I barely use it. It's a good expansion pack, it's just the one I use the least.

7. Free Time
I really like all the new items that this ep brings, and I think sims having a hobby is a nice addition plus more personalization to the sims! However I barely ever pay attention to it. There was a time where I respected my sims wishes and tried to give them stuff related to their predetermined hobbies, but I found it very burdening for my personal style, so I stopped doing it. In conclusion, I don't play with hobbies, I never visit the hobby lots and I modded out the hobby stalkers, but I LOVE the items!

6. Pets
Sometimes I get the urge to adopt a pet or two in few households, but for the most part I avoid using them. I think this is kind of similar to the way I look at Bon Voyage; once you have a pet and do the things you can do with it, it's not as fun anymore to do it again. Sometimes I even think that pets are rather annoying. I always mod out strays and maybe only 5% of my families actually get a pet. Also, I find it stressful when I don't know what to do with pet tombstones. I don't feel like they look good in my cemetery and I don't like keeping them in their owners' houses. I guess I could make a pet cemetery, but I still haven't gotten around to it...

5. Seasons
I guess from this point on I'll be talking about eps that I do like and enjoy playing with. I love the new activities that seasons brings; fishing and farming are some of my favorite things to do in the game and I don't get tired of them no matter how many sims do it! I like that we can customize neighborhoods with the seasons they go through. I LOVE THE PENGUIN AND THE SNOWMEN. I do, however, turn off winter half of the time, but then I miss it and put it back in. Then I turn it off again and the cycle continues!

4. Nightlife
I LOVE Downtown and the ability to create my own custom downtowns. I love the vibe of partying in the night and having a bunch of places for my sims to go to. I really like sending my sims on dates and outings. I LOVE RESTAURANTS. THE VAMPIRES!! MRS CRUMPLEBOTTOM! All gold. I really appreciate the small piece of lore that came with this ep as well. I love nightlife.

3. Apartment Life
I love love love the way that apartments work in this game. I really enjoy building them and I like the idea of the social groups. This ep has given me the most amount of bugs I've seen in my game but nothing that I can't handle. I think there is an old thread somewhere in here of me asking why the hell one random roommate had spawned in the middle of Brandi Broke's family tree. I love the apartments dynamic and witches are my favorite life state out of all in TS2.

2. University
University is another thing I never get tired of. ALL of my sims go to university. I LOVE MAKING DORMS IT'S MY GUILTY PLEASURE. Unpopular opinion: I actually like the normal amount of time that university lasts and I do play through the 24 days with every single one of my babies and I love seeing them enjoy their young adult era. I really love the whole concept, I love the way they walk, I love the NPCs! Cafeteria lady, marry me. I do use the college megapack so that some of my sims can stay in my main hood and not actually go to college. I like to imagine that some of my babies go to "community college" and still live with their parents while they attend their classes. I almost never care about their degrees and their grades if I'm being honest, but the university experience is what does it for me.

1. Open For Business
THIS EXPANSION PACK IS AMAZING. I find great satisfaction with playing my stores, and every time I start a new neighborhood I have the urge to create a business for every possible thing I can do. The possibilities are endless and I never get tired of them! Tell me why I have 20+ businesses in my current neighborhood and I still feel like I need more? I LOVE THIS PACK, IT GIVES ME LIFE. THANK YOU.