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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From best to worst.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My personal opinions:

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

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

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

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

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

Personally, my list goes as...

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

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

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

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

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

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

@Diamond123Girl - Its open for business

From best to worst:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So you don't own any of them?

Sorry, it's 3:03 AM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can't wait to do beach lots.

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