It's ironic that I found Uni so dull, since I'm in college at the moment. I guess it's because the fun part of actually being at a university is (to me) all the amazing classes and getting to learn about things I love, and the Sims isn't really about academics in general. Uni is the only EP I don't have. I miss the workout equipment, but even if I had it I might not install it. I hate all those "go to college" wants, and I hate feeling guilty for never sending my sims to college.

My favorite is still Nightlife; Chemistry was a brilliant idea and I don't think I could play the game without it. At the moment I don't have Nightlife on my computer, and I miss it sooo much. I love dates, the whole downtown area, vampires, and that oh-so-romantic slow dance interaction.

Actually, I think one of the best things about BV is the new attractions. I really like the romance aspect of the game, so that was cool.

Pets are cute, but not nearly as good as I'd hoped. They don't really do much, and something about them looks a little odd.

Seasons: oh, the rain! I love Seasons so much because it's just so beautiful. My Seasons disk is broken (rrrgh) and I really miss it. All those seasons were so pretty, and farming was really fun.

Okay, this is my list and reasons.

#1: Nightlife
This EP is by far the best ever. If anybody is going to have one EP, you must have this one. You can go clubbing, go to the whole new downtown area which has so many things for your sims to explore (ie Vampires!) The whole new dating system is awesome! It makes falling in love fun, and having a great date has rewards too. All new social interactions, turn ons/offs, chemistry and of course, cars! I love this EP and couldn't live without it.

#2: Seasons
Seasons is great. Finally there is weather in the sims world, which we all wanted since the first sims game came out. Autumn is particularly lovely with gorgeous lighting. Rain, hail, snow and shine. I love winter too becase the snow gradually increases and sims can make snowmen, get into snowball fights and even make snow angels! But I dislike the whole "Its raining/snowing/hailing" thing that sims do whenever the weather does happen.... and they wake up in the middle of the night... but, that was fixed with a hack that removes that. So its all good.

#3: OFB
Okay, so this may not be the best expansion pack ever, but it does have some perks. You can run a business or your own home business which can be fun but it becomes stressful and annoying down the line for me. I've never ran a business past level 3 without flipping out and cheating! But it comes with some great hairs, clothes etc and some cool objects too.

#4 Uni
Ugh, this is a boring EP. Okay, but boring. So sims go to university, they hibernate in their bedroom in my game studying and building skills and occasionally ringing up home to get their social bar up, but I don't really see the point, other than getting a degree in something and not having to start a career all the way at the bottom. But uh, the fact that teens get this want automatically as soon as they grow up is really annoying. Some people don't go to uni, so why can't sims choose to not go without having aspiration failure? lol. I pretty much rant about this expansion and the bad outweighs the good with this one for me.

#5: Bon Voyage
I really don't like it. Boring as all hell, and after my first vacation I got tired of it. So many bugs, issues and complications that I find its hardly worth all the hassle. Besides you can't even go to the Alps? A ski resort? You think after making seasons they would incorporate all of the eather features into the vacation destinations, but no. That really bugged me,because I was so looking foward to sending my sims to a lodge burried deep within the snowy mountains with rustic decor, sitting before a fire drinking hot chocolate while it blizzards outside, and then waking up early to have a ski day. But no. And the destinations aren't really that great. The far east is worse than I expected it to be, as well as the mountain thing, so this EP rates really badly for me!

Leastly and lastly, at #6: Pets
No need to put a description for this one, because the title says it all. You get pets. Generic, small and annoying pets that chew up your time and money. They didn't even bother throwing in some cool interactions, objects and clothes/hairstyles for your sims. Just, pets. Horrible, horrible excuse for an EP IMO.

Poll results zeroed now that BV has been out a little bit - previous favourite EP was Seasons.

Thought I'd get in on the fun before I have to go to work. Blech work!

What is your most favourite/least favourite expansion pack, and why?
Most favorite is Seasons, because it's so rich in content and gameplay! I love it! Least favorite is University. It's just plain boring!
What is your most favourite/least favourite stuff pack, and why?
I've only got Celebration Stuff, and it's not that great. I might not reinstall it when I get my new computer. I want H&M, Teen Style, and Family Fun Stuff.
If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be?
1) Seasons!
2) OFB
3) Pets
4) Nightlife
5) University
If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?
University. I don't like it, there's not much to do with it, and I never send my Teens to Uni anyway.

Er... Would it be possible to make it so people who have already voted, vote again?

Here's my list:

Seasons: I just love it. A lot of extra things came with it that are just amazing. The leftovers, the seasons (duh) and their interactions. I wouldn't be able to play the game without seasons now.

Nightlife: When I bought TS2 I was a little late and was able to buy Uni with it. But I didn't play it much because I needed to get on dates and go out into town and everything. The only thing I don't really like is the loading times.

Open For Business: I just love it that the Sims can start their own businesses and make some money out of it. With the Sims 1 I made all these gnomes and then sold them, so I was delighted that now I could make them a real business.

University: It has some nice things, the careers and some nice stuff. But getting your sims through uni is soooo boring. They should have halved the time or something, It just takes ages.

Pets: I had such high expectations, I even pre-ordered (which I never do) and I was so disappointed afterwards. The only thing it adds is pets and after you played it once with a pet, you've seen it all.

1. Seasons--the weather really adds another dimension to gameplay, the lighting and effects are gorgeous, the vegtable gardening is great and long overdue, and the objects that came with this pack were terrific--the whole country theme sets that actually had lots of matching pieces are among my favorties thus far.
2. Open for Business--again, tons of new gameplay options with great opportunities for variety; one is not limited to only a few kinds of shops, you can sell anything, so its well integrated with the content already included in the game. Some decent build item sets.
3. Pets--though I rarely have pets in my game, they're done pretty well, don't get too annoying. Otherwise, this one, like Seasons, I think had some of the best new object sets available.
4. Uni--Underappreciated EP, in my opinion. Added a lot of good things to the game, new careers, more opportunites to get sims skilled up and befriended, so it doesn't take as long to get to the top of career tracks. Some decent objects, though the walls and floors were a joke. And that sofa that looks like lips--gah, that still gives me hives.
5. Nightlife--the least interesting of all. Can't say much good about this one. I thought it was dull as dirt, though I like the dating thing.

Stuff packs--Glamor Stuff was great, had an excellant bunch of objects, most of which matched. Family Fun stunk, and H&M was actually repulsive, not worth buying at all.
Can't offer opinions about BV yet--I've got it but haven't installed it yet, waiting for my new 'puter to get here before I can--or the other stuff packs, which I wasn't interested in.

Here's my list:

1) Seasons
+ Gardening
+ Fishing
+ Leftovers
+ New jobs
+ Weather effects (even if the snow slows up my game)
- Furniture/wallpapers. It's nice, but I have very little "quaint" houses for it.

2) Bon Voyage
+ Themed lots
+ Many new activities
+ New chemistry types
+ New landscaping items (trees, beach lots)
- Geared towards adult sims. (Example: no native outfits for other ages.)

3) Nightlife
+ Chemistry and attraction
+ New playable subneigbourhoods for all sims
+ More modern build/buy mode items
+ Inventory
- Cars. I just don't use them much.

4) Open For Business
+ Bluewater Village terrain
+ Making money without jobs
+ Many nice new walls/floors
+ Workbenches
- Costume clothing/hair. Never use this.

5) University
+ New careers
+ New hairs
+ More want slots
- Influence. I never understood the need for this.
- Uni subhoods are nice but don't interact much with the rest of the game.

6) Pets
+ Skunk (hey, it's cute but don't try to pet it!)
- Too many strays digging up my flowers
- Too many strays going shopping with me
- Too many strays chasing my guests around the yard
- Nothing new for families without pets

I think Seasons and Bon Voyage are the most diverse additions to the game. OFB helps break job monotomy and Nightlife adds a lot of basic things. Uni and Pets are the most limited ones - but unlike Uni, Pets invades all your lots whether you want it or not.

Glamour Life is my fav Stuff Pack - I use its furniture a lot, especially in bedrooms. H&M brought some nice clothes, but the others are disappointing.

Which exp should I buy? OFB or BV? Most seem to prefer OFB, but what do you guys think is the best one?

My favorite EP is a tie between Nightlife and Seasons. They both add so much to the game, I love them. My least favorite is probably Pets. I don't hate it, but it's just sort of..."eh" to me.

My favorite SP is probably H&M. I don't like a lot of the women's clothing, but the stuff for the guys is great. My least favorite is FFS.

Figgi: Hmm...I'd say BV. Unless you really want to own business, OFB doesn't do much. BV has a lot of cool new interactions and items.

My fave EP is:

All of the Above

Sorry can't decide which one,
for me all of them is the best :D

Yeah..same here!!I install all the SP and EP..of couse..I only have 3965 things in my download folder..... :animekeep it neat and tidy...)

Seasons is definitly my favourite, as it has completely transformed the game for me. I didn't use to play very intensively, but that has completely changed once I got Seasons. I'm now a proper addict

Pets was disappointing when I first got it, and it hasn't managed to convince me. I now actually find it rather annoying and will uninstall it soon.

What is your most favourite/least favourite expansion pack, and why?
I think Seasons is really great. It makes The Sims look like a completely different game. And the weather is just beautiful (I love the snow, the rain, everything). I think it's by far the expansion that I really like the most.
The least favorite one would be Pets or Uni. I never send my teens to Uni since it's so long and boring, and all there is in Pets are JUST pets... I think none of my Sims actually own a pet!

What is your most favourite/least favourite stuff pack, and why?
My favorite one would be H&M, because I love the clothes there is in it. There are just so many, and they're actually good looking (well at least most of them).
The least favorite one is Family Fun Stuff because I felt like it didn't add so much to the game.

If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be?
1 : Seasons
2 : Nightlife
3 : OFB
4 : Bon Voyage
5 : Pets
6 : Uni.

If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?
Uni, since I never use it anyway

Ooh, I was considering whether to treat myself to a stuff pack (I have Amazon vouchers, yay!) and debating on Teen Style or Celebration. On the one hand, TSS seems to have more and looks better made, but I don't see myself using all the stuff and I've never really felt myself lacking for teen stuff while playing. Celebration Stuff doesn't seem to have an awful lot, and some of it looks pretty poo in terms of quality, but I tend to want more party stuff in game, particularly for weddings.

Decisions, decisions.

My Expansion Pack hierarchy goes:

Seasons - a brilliant addition to the gameplay, as well as including a fair amount of nice stuff to use in your Sim's home whether you really pay attention to the weather or not. Gardening and fishing are great ways to pass the time, too.

Open For Business - adds a whole new element of gameplay, making The Sims challenging for the first time in ... well... ever. Unfortunately it doesn't include many new non-business items or options but the variety of the businesses you can run make up for that.

Nightlife - not just an original Sims rip-off. It has driveable cars, come on! The restaraunt podiums and the DJ booth make it easier for you to find something to do once you take your Sim out of the safety of their house, and it's always fun to watch Sims be more randy and flirtatious.

Bon Voyage - again, far more than it's original counterpart. The holidays are fun and it's possible to go back to the same destination and find something completely new that you hadn't discovered before. The way Sims show off their new local ways can be a tad annoying, though, so you might want to think twice about teaching them all the greetings gestures. The game was also severely buggy for a lot of people, but fortunately not for me. One great new option: the ability to walk to lots rather than take a car or a taxi.

University - the first expansion pack was at least a brand new idea and something that was certainly lacking in Sims lives. The groovy hippie themed objects are also useful to have if you happen to like groovy hippie themed objects. The downside is that university life takes you away from the main gameplay and can be tedious to get through. By the time your Sim is in their last year you have half a mind to make them drop out and go back to the main neighbourhood. The plus side is that if they do make it, there are shiny new jobs available and these jobs are much better paid. Still, it's a bit weird for an artist to be instantly better paid and require more qualifications than a doctor or a polititian.

Pets - the EP I would uninstall if I had to get rid of one. I don't specifically dislike it, and the cats and dogs look great and are quite fun to watch. But you can't interact with them very much, and non-pet related objects are sorely lacking. There is an 'atomic' theme that I find even less useful in-game than the Myushuno device. Although pets are a signifcant part of real world living, they don't add much to The Sims except their cuteness. Perhaps if training them in the basic house rules was more difficult there would be more to keep you on your toes, but once they've stopped eating/peeing on the furniture they just mooch around and occasionally want a food re-fill or a cuddle. Best feature: the strange but adorable Womrat trying to climb up the side of its cage.

I was wondering if anyone had all of the stuff packs and could compare them for me? I'm going to be getting the lot of them (except FFS, which I have, and TSS which I, for all intents and purposes, will have) but it's staggered and I wanted opinions on which I oughta get first, and all of the posts here are more about the EPs than the SPs. Any help would be appreciated . Thank you, and have a lovely day!

Ask, and ye shall receive!

Fave to least fave SP (IMO)

1. H&M-I adore clothes and these came with awesome outfits, especially for female Sims. There's also some great recolors out there.
2. TSS-Again with the clothes, lol. I also like the beds and desks.
3. GL-Decent-to-good clothes. I'm a fan of the paintings (though I usually don't care about paintings in the game, lol)
4. Celebration-A mixed bag of clothes. It does include cute toddler dresses. The new cakes are nice, but the new wedding arch annoys me b/c it does not use the same animations as the previous and rushes the wedding along.
5. FFS-The objects were okay but *hated* the clothes. Every time a toddler ages to child and is wearing the dinosaur outfit or the swimming gear with the rubber ducky, I think to myself, "That kid is soooo gonna get his butt kicked at school!"
6. Holiday-Mostly because my disk was messed up and installed wrong.

I know I'm forgetting one, but I hope that helps!

1: FreeTime
- new activities
- hobbies
-contests
- genie lamp (ability to resurect a family member!!!)
- the only bad things I have to say that the clothes and hairstyles are more "color ful and fantisical" then to my liking. They are almost like what the matchmaker wears in Nightlife.

2. Nightlife:
- FINALLY CARS!!!
- turn ons/ turn offs
- bars and clubs
-karaoke
- only thing I dislike about it is vampires. They are sort of freaky and have no concept to me what so ever.

3. Season:
- the weather affects are really cool
- new pool accents
- sledgehammer tool (REALLY USEFUL!!!)
- ability to choose hairstyles for each category of clothing
- gardening/fishing
- country collection
- leftovers
- only bad thing really is that there is another way to have a fire (lightning)

4: Bon Voyage
- saunas and massage tables and springs
- BEACHES!!
- pagoda roofs
- new ways to get your sims out of there house
- hammocks
- unsavory chattalon (he is quiet hilarious, yet freaky... best NPC ever!)
- cameras
- only bad thing is really that to complete all the memories you have to go everywhere over and over again and it gets boring and hard.

5: Open for Business
- cheesecake and berry pie... mmmm
- new way to get twins
- ability to give others makeovers
- toys, robots, and flower arrangments
- at first it can be really cool owning your own business, but afterwards it gets really boring and you get tired of it because there is so little to do. and when hiring employees they only give you 5 of the worst who don't even have what you want. It's practically uneeded

those are the only EP's I have.
I want to get UNI just for Legacy perpouses but I am not going to get pets. you can't control them and there is more of a hassle. plus, who wants animal ghosts in there home? But animals could make some profit for business.

I'm not really sure which EP is my favourite, but it's probably seasons. It's the most realistic addition to the game without being useless or intrusive.
I don't have bon voyage or freetime, but...

Seasons
+ Weather
+ Gardening & Fishing
+ Plantsims!
+ I use the new furniture a lot because all my houses are fairly small and it looks really cute.
+ I liked a lot of the new AF clothes
- very little new hair, and the hair that was added is kind of useless (awkward hats and earmuffs)
- autonomous catch and water balloon fights bug me. a lot. <_<

Nightlife
+ Cars, which I find useful when my sims have annoying carpools like the helicopter.
+ Downtown. Even if I'm usually not in the mood for dragging my sims downtown, it's a neat option, and buying the downtown lots with OFB makes things interesting.
+ LOTS of new clothes, as well as the option to use some of the teen and uni (?) clothing on adults.
+ Dates, chemistry and being able to meet new sims over the phone (friends of friends call after great outings)
- a minor annoyance, but I hate how almost every time a friend calls to 'chat', it turns into them inviting my sim downtown.
- also a minor annoyance, I think the driveways are wayy too large. I usually only build on 2x2 lots, and I think the driveway + garage combo takes up an unrealistic amount of space.
- crap new hairs.

OFB
+ I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if you don't have Uni or Nightlife, installing OFB adds influence, chemistry and turn ons & offs.
+ home businesses are pretty fun to run and can generate a HUGE amount of money if it's successful
+ lots of new clothes, even if a lot of them are kind of useless
+ crafting benches! I really like this aspect because I think it adds a bit more uniqueness in the game. having items for sale that can't be bought in catalog (without altering the game) is fun, especially servos and snapdragons
- running a business on a different lot is kind of tedious, and I've never really worked a business up enough for it to be able to generate significant revenue by "checking in" from home.
- "own 5 top level businesses" lifetime want >_<

Pets
+ Realistic. Certain families seem so much more fun when they have pets in them.
+ Pet jobs add a small amount of income, say when a single mother is on maternity leave, her pet can still go to work to earn enough money in case the bills come or something.
+ Some of the furniture is actually alright.
- pets can get fairly useless after awhile. at least in TS1 Unleashed, dogs could pee on your plants to water them, you could get them to "attack neighbour", cats could hunt mice and there were shows.
- seriously, whats the deal with the unlockable fur colours? i've never used them.

University
+ I love all the new careers and career rewards, especially the artist camera.
+ Realistic addition, since people who go to college or university do tend to get further in their careers from the start
+ new want slots and the ability to lock two wants at once after graduating
- getting through university is far too long and tedious, the community lots there are kind of useless
- scholarship requirements are a bit unrealistic. i mean, having to have a skill almost completely maxed by adolescence? come on.
- groovy stuff was completely useless to me. i haven't made a single hippy sim yet.

I'm getting a new expansion pack soon, but I'm not sure which one. The only ones (excluding SPs) I don't have are...

OFB
BV
and Seasons

I'll probably get all of them eventually, but which one of them is the one I should get next? Many have told me Seasons is their favorite, but OFB sounds most interesting to me at the moment.

If OFB is the one you think is most interesting, it is the one you should get.

IMHO OFB is a waste of money. If your computer has good enought specs I would definately recommend getting Seasons. It adds the most to your gameplay and it's overall the best EP [IMO]

I only think it's the most interesting because I know next to nothing about any of them. Other than the obvious (you start a business or go on vacation or you have seasons.)


Which one adds the most gameplay to it?

(oh, and my computer can support any of them. I checked.)

tough decision, but seasons is the most fun

Now that I have all the SPs except Kitchen and Bath... With ratings 0-10...

Holiday: Outright sucks. Bad. The objects are cute but I never have holiday events for my sims. Tons of spam of the walls and floors section (who the hell fully re-wallpapers and re-floors their house for the holidays?!) and the windows section (with frosted windows - useless if you have Seasons. If you just love Christmas it might be worth it. But even then probably not. Rating: 1.

Family Fun Stuff: Lots of brightly-coloured plastic and weird outfits. They're all pretty well done, but I don't think I'd ever use any of them on my sims or in their houses. I don't do cutesey kid themed rooms and the outfits are just too strange. If you really like the cutesy cartoon thing and you like sim kids to wear goofy outfits, you might like it though. Rating: 3.

Celebration Stuff: Lots of formalwear that seems a little awkward - most of the female dresses seem to be strapless with weird tops. The textures are pretty nice though. I -really- dislike the objects... they come in strange colours and really aren't that useful. Rating: 2.

Glamour Life Stuff: The clothing isn't too bad... some of it is a bit special-use but I do like the men's suits and the textures are nicely done. The objects are well-made and versatile and quite stylish. Rating: 6.

H&M Fashion Stuff: This one I actually really like. The clothing is quirky and cute (especially for women) and though some of it falls into the fugly catagory, most of it is really nice and kind of 80's-ish. The casual stuff for men is excellent, and there's one male suit that is quite sexy. Not much in the way of objects besides some stuff for doing H&M stores, but at least you're not spammed with it. Rating: 9

Teen Style Stuff: Cute clothes in fun themes, and great objects that are good not only for teens but for other sims too. Focused on teen sims which I don't tend to play much, but it does fill a gap. Rating: 8.

Poll numbers reset since Free Time has been out a while now. Previous results:

University - 10 votes
Nightlife - 38 votes
Open for Business - 27 votes
Pets - 15 votes
Seasons - 110 votes (clear winner - more votes than all other EPs combined!)
Bon Voyage - 15 votes