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What are the 3 Best and Worst Sims Expansions of All Time and why?
DeservedCriticism
Posts: 2,251 Member
Simple questions wants not so simple answer. I want everyone to think back on the Sims franchise and name three packs that you consider to be the best and three packs that you consider to be the worst that EA/Maxis have ever made. I think this would be a good discussion worth having, cause even if it includes references to past sims games, it helps show EA/Maxis what we liked and what we looked for in past expansions, and hopefully they can use that for future Sims 4 expansions. Whether you choose to have no particular order for your three or to make a 1-3 prioritized list, that's your call. This is going to be one massive wall of text from me, so by all means if you don't want to hear me ramble, feel free to read the headlines only and then skip on to writing your own reviews; I promise I won't cry or take it personal. I'll start with my three best:
1) Supernatural for Sims 3
It was hard to choose which to list as the "best" between this one and my next one, but at the end I consider this one a little more open-ended and diverse. Before Sims 3, I was not a huge fan of fantasy stuff in Sims. I liked realistic, down-to-earth expansions to help make the game more of a Life Simulator. Then this one came along. I feel like if you tried to objectively sit down and rationalize which Sims 3 expansions offered the most raw content - regardless of content quality or how much you liked said content theme - then some expansions clearly had more content than others. Supernatural definitely feels like it was one of the most content-heavy packs of the franchise, for one. For two...? This holds the record by a mile for the most life states in a single pack. Each had a nice little sense of progression with life state-based skills to level, though if that wasn't your cup of tea, Vampires were just complete from the start. The alchemy skill was likewise very expansive and interesting, probably being the most diverse and capable skill in all of Sims 3. To top it all off, the town that shipped with it actually had a lot of unique things going for it. There were gardening competitions at the arboretum, there were trivia challenges at the Vault of Antiquity, there were lots of unique little interactions and unique lots throughout the pack. The Fairy Garden for example seemed to randomly grow certain plants, sometimes growing Life Fruit. The career that came with it was one of the slowest and not great on payments, but to me had some of the most interesting interactions and bonuses; mystics got a blue glow that made good or family-orientated Sims hate you, but evil or outdoorsy sims loved you. (several more too)
The main reason I list this one over my second pick is because I feel this one was ultimately more open-ended and less linear. You could make a witch, become super powerful and just murder people (Fire Blast at a Sim's feat or Thirst Curse on vampires). You could make new witches and have them murder each other for dominance, you could constantly make new sims with new life states and just toy with those and their different dynamics. This pack just gave Sims a lot of unique tools for interacting with each other, so it gives the imaginative mind a lot to play with.
Even though this is a pack that clearly "offends" or scares off a certain type of player, I'd say that for it's target consumer, it did everything right.
2) Open For Business for Sims 2
Almost put this as my number one pick, so having said that...? This one is amazing too. Again, this was a super open-ended pack that combined player freedom with a sense of progression. Starting off, your business probably wasn't very good. Your cashier fumbled over the cash register while trying to find the number 1, your Sim put his foot in his mouth while trying to make a sale, and the guy restocking your supplies restocked his first item around the same time you closed up shop. With time however, both you and your workers acquired skill badges, and every time you saw a sim level up in their respective skill, there was a degree of excitement and a sense of progress. You couldn't wait to see the next day of work and how much more efficient your business got. You were also reluctant to close up shop for the day because running a shop was just so much fun.
If that wasn't enough, the game included some worthwhile skills with it. You may have viewed Flower Arranging as a simple means to make money or an immersive type of business model. Stick to it however, and you may be pleasantly surprised with some of the powerful rewards the skill badge provided at the end. There was a nice bulky amount of skill content, with skills for toy making, cashier, restocking, talking to customers, hairstyling, bot building and flower arranging. Bot Building was especially nice as it offered Servo as the ultimate reward, which was probably one of the most unique life states in Sims 2, function-wise.
This pack single-handedly allowed you to build each and every business in the Sims 2 from the ground up. If you wanted to hand-make every commercial lot, restaurant, club, convenience store and shopping mall in your game...? Open for Business gave you the tools to do it. Once again, the sky was the limit with your imagination being the only thing dictating what could and couldn't be done.
My only complaint is I consider the economy-balancing of this pack to be very short-sighted. Sims that made a purchase in your store actually got their item, but didn't lose any money. This meant if someone bought a §100,000, you gained §100,000 and so did they when they sell it. The game didn't really offer the player a simple and easy way to get rid of that car from the other Sim's inventory without him getting the money, either, so having a high-end store meant you'd quickly see Sim inventory's bloat OR everyone would quickly become rich. A bit disappointing for an otherwise amazing pack.
3) Ambitions for Sims 3
Amongst the Sims 3, I'd say the most content-heavy packs - regardless of whether the content is liked or not - are Supernatural, World Adventures, and Ambitions. Supernatural I already praised, and World Adventures...? I did like World Adventures, but I also feel it's such a niche group it's hard to really love it. Once you did the dungeons, they were repeats that never changed. For a lot of sims, say a single mother of three, you have difficulty justifying her going through an ancient Egyptian tomb on a whim. And on top of that, some of the bugs this expansion brought with it were rather annoying.
But Ambitions...? Once again, this was a content-heavy pack with plenty to do. Comparatively some might say the careers were repetitive, but I'd argue they were only that way if you allowed them to be. The Sims team chose a route where NOT doing your tasks and NOT going to work one day actually didn't penalize your performance, and while some might initially disagree with such a decision, this means if someone does feel their active career is getting grindy and repetitive...? Simply take a break! Simple as that.
Some careers, such as the Ghost Hunter, Private Investigator and Firefighter, were very straightforward and highly interactive. Others, such as the Stylist or Home Designer, were a bit more time consuming, but if customization and giving the whole town a personal touch was your cup of tea? These are your dream come true. And finally, if you simply want to feel more immersed and want your farmer to be officially recognized as a "farmer?" Now you can register at Town Hall as a professional for a number of the game's skills, including a lot of the skills from other expansions. To top it all off, even if you just wanted a bland old normal career like the base game? This pack had one of those too with the Education career. This pack truly had something for everyone, so no matter what kind of career you were in the mood for, this had something for you.
Perhaps overlooked since it wasn't the selling point of the pack....? The two Skills that came with it were great. The Inventing skill was loads of fun, with some practical inventions, some exciting ones, and some entertaining interactions. Detonating objects around town may be costly and frowned upon, but admit it, sometimes being the evil scientist is fun. Simbots were also unique and endearing. In many ways they actually felt inferior to normal Sims, but watching them attempt to interact with a world that was frightened by them was always kind of nice to watch. And if you ever wanted to spice up gameplay a bit and throw your sims a curveball? The Time Machine had loads of outcomes to change Sims lives, such as giving them a child, an elder descendant, a new job, a new relationship, and all kinds of other little outcomes.
The Sculpting career perhaps wasn't as straightforward, but it was definitely expansive. An insane amount of unique designs were available here if you had the time to commit to the skill, so if you wanted a skill to dedicate a Sim to...? One that your roommate sim can spend countless hours on while you focus on another Sim? This was it. Maybe it'd be boring and tedious at first, but once you had a house full of non-melting ice furniture, that was certainly something unique and memorable about that sim.
Once again, I feel this hit the perfect balance between "interaction + balance" and "non-linear freedom." Maybe not quite as memorable or exciting as the other two, but good nonetheless.
Now, onto the....less popular packs...My worst three are:
3) Into the Future for Sims 3
I never understood the appeal of this one. The future neighborhood was always a bit annoying for me because it was in-your-face content around the clock. What if I didn't want the future to be in my face for a time...? Well sad day for me; go back home and neglect Oasis Landing - and this expansion - until I change my mind. I never cared to get any of the careers in Oasis Landing or to stay for an extended period of time.
The problem Into the Future had, at it's core, was that experiencing the content the pack had to offer meant abandoning the base game content and all the other expansion content for an extended period of time. You couldn't really balance it out and have a town full of futuristic technology as well as a bustling city like Bridgeport. It just didn't happen, and at the end of the day, no, this pack was not interesting enough to beat out the others.
One of the skills this pack offered was less of a skill and more of a demand of immersion: Advanced Technology. None of the unlocks were anything spectacular, it was more that this skill was neccesary to watch your sim go from a bumbling idiot at risk of dying every time he used a jetpack, to a future sim that understood the tech. Then there's Bot Building....oh boy, was this a disappointment...
Plumbots, to me, are hands down the most disappointing life state we've ever had. Something about the AI of these things was terrible. Even if you gave them sentience, they mostly just wanted to sit on your sofa and play video games. They had no wishes or desires, and no matter what upgrades you gave them, two things remained constant: they'd hog your computer for video games, or they'd syphon your toaster and break it instead of acknowledging you have a super convenient charger for them that doesn't break when it gives them energy. These things were nothing short of obnoxious, and what's worse, you couldn't kill them. I never wanted one of these, and even selling them demanded a rather annoying trip to the future.
If there's anything to learn from Into the Future, I'd say it's this: avoid packs that compete with existing content instead of synergizing with it. Into the Future foolishly attempted to function as a "replacement" for everything else the game had, and of course it lost. Even as a brief getaway location like university or a vacation world, it was a real hassle because the neighborhood had NOTHING to offer aside from the expansion's own content. You couldn't work your job there, staying meant any of your friends back in your timeline were dying in your absence, there weren't really any locations to experience content from other packs, and seriously someone give me a gun because omg I want to shoot every last plumbot on earth, I hate these things, stop trying to scan me and let me sleep. Never again. Never again should we see such a pack so poorly executed.
2) Island Paradise for Sims 3
This one is on this list not so much for having lame features, but for breaking records in terms of bugs and instability. This expansion was 100% dependent on it's exclusive neighborhood for you to experience it's content in full. You weren't really going to have half the fun experimenting with all the new features it had if you tried doing so in one of the older neighborhoods. The problem is that EA so haphazardly tossed together the neighborhood that for a ridiculous amount of users, the expansion did not even function. I'm sure many of us know all too well just how prone to freezing and corruption this town is, but what's truly sad is how avoidable it all was.
A major cause of lag for Isla Paradiso is routing issues for NPCs. That's a norm for Sims 3, and I know Starlight Shores for example has a spot that horses tend to get stuck on, but it's understandable EA might miss that spot in testing, right....? Well, the issues in Isla Paradiso are a little less forgivable. For one thing, one of the premade families has their front door marked as the door on their third story roof. Such a simple, stupid little mistake means this poor family is constantly failing to enter their own home, and you suffer from lag because of it. Another guy has his bathtub facing the wrong way, so when it's bath time for him? It's lag time for you! On top of all that, the whole ocean traveling system was perhaps a bit ambitious, as certain locations out on water can cause all kinds of routing issues when NPCs try to reach you.
I will not even comment on the quality of existing features that come with this pack, cause to be frank, I haven't FULLY experienced them and doubt I ever will. That's not for lack of trying though; this pack practically demands you troubleshoot the crap out of it to get it functional. And for that reason...?
This pack absolutely demands a spot on this list as a testament to how disgustingly laggy products can be and how yes, we will get sick of it and stop purchasing if EA neglects bug fixes and playtesting. Never was this expansion pack patched, and sadly, I question if EA learned their lesson. I was so appalled by this pack that I actually googled to try and understand why a class-action lawsuit hadn't been filed since this pack very debateably doesn't even serve it's promised functions, and it'd make for a very interesting court case regarding how buggy a product is allowed to be before it's considered a sham. Turns out the User Agreement we've all signed by purchasing EA products has you agreeing you'll never partake in a class-action lawsuit, and boy I'm sure that came in handy for this pack; yeah you could individually demand a refund, but EA knows not everyone will bother. The only people that should celebrate Isla Paradiso are EA's lawyers, as I'm sure they all enjoyed a nice Christmas bonus that year.
All I ask in regards to the mistakes of Island Paradise...? Never do that again EA, and if they do...? Never purchase again.
1) City Living for Sims 4
This expansion marks a change for me and the Sims franchise. I purchased every Sims 1 and Sims 2 expansion without much concern; I trusted their quality. Sims 3 I hesitated and got some late, but I eventually gave all of them a chance. Sims 4...? City Living is the first expansion I've ever skipped, and I have zero regrets.
I'm sure some of you may be wondering how I can call this the worst expansion ever when I've not played it. I'll start by saying I do believe we're at a day and age when you can get a feel for a video game's quality by watching Let's Plays. I was open to the concept of this pack, I watched the preview livestreams by the Sims team whilst scratching my head and wondering where the features were, and even after I watched several Let's plays by several youtubers to see if I was missing anything. I googled info, I read up as much as I can, I've tried to be as informed as possible....and I still cannot justify a purchase, even though this pack often feels like it's permanently on sale.
The main selling point of the pack, according to the title, is life in the city. The first thing that comes to mind is the apartments, which are obviously unique and new. However, watching videos of apartment life, I struggle to pinpoint any benefit to it. All I see is downsides bombarding the player...and this is "fun?" Why would I choose an apartment over a house? When they updated Sims 4 with that patch that gave kid sims a monster under the bed, I'm sure plenty of us quickly grew so tired of it that we bought the night light or bought every kid a double bed. It was cute at first, perhaps, but after a bit, it's just something tedious to do in the middle of the night. How is yelling at my neighbors about noise any different? I might not mind this if I saw a mix of upsides and downsides to life in an apartment, but again, I see no upsides. The only potential "upside" is that friends and neighbors pop in to hang out with you periodically, but no, I don't consider that an upside. Famously, they have a terrible habit of drinking water obsessively and creating lots of dish work for you once they leave. They also often trigger a social event, so if you're about to travel and a neighbor pops in, you have to cancel the event before you can proceed. A minor nitpick perhaps, but when it's a constant thing, yeah I see it getting annoying. I personally appreciate a sense of control in my own home, but when Sims can barge into my home and start an event or drink my water without me having any control until I stop what I'm doing and tell them to shove off...? Oh yeah, I'm annoyed.
Then we have the festivals. These have got to be the most mediocre events I've ever seen. I look at them, and again I question what's the attraction. Unless you have the goal of collecting all the new recipes, there's no motivation to visit. Even the snowglobes seem to often appear in bulk at the Flea Market, singlehandedly completing the collection the moment you begin it. Geekcon, the Romance Festival, Humor and Hijinks and the Spice Festival all offer nothing new, unless you want to count the food stalls as new for Spice Festival. Flea market is new, but from what I've seen, the items on sale tend to repeat heavily, the only major variance being whatever collection is on sale. Still, this one is at least salvageable since you can trade with other sims that are there to try and complete collections. But one out of five...? 20% of your festivals are worth a regular visit...? That's well below failing.
If that weren't bland enough, I found a website showing off the pay and the rewards of the new careers. I have no idea why EA allowed this to happen, but these careers have next to zero unique rewards. Other careers tend to have 10 unique rewards, but these new ones...? Man, you're lucky if you get two. Hilariously, I saw pictures of the rooms you unlock at level 10. Seriously, look these up: they use base game furniture and have nothing of interest in them. It's so sad and pathetic to look at it gives me Fremdschaemen. Top it off, the careers are some of the worst paying careers in the game. I have no problem with poorly paying careers; I welcome those, actually and wish we had more. However, I think a spectrum of good and bad is nice, and from what I've seen, the best career is just below average in pay. It seems VERY disappointing for those wanting new careers to play with. It seems being an internet celeb and selling out constantly is the only career worth any money at all, though that of course demands work in your off-hours.
What remains...? The Singing skill seems like a gimmick. Fun at first, I'm sure, but probably something you're done with by the third time you level it past terrible range. I feel like it's more fun to watch sims suck at singing, so I feel like it actually gets more dull as it improves. The City aspiration seems TERRIBLE, with the least appetizing reward trait in the game; the aspiration trait is better for crying out loud. Famously the devs bragged about folding chairs and talking toilets, and that speaks volumes of how content-sparse this pack is. The clothing is hit or miss and personally I'm not a fan, a lot of people complain about lag in the city and I've seen Let's Players consistently drop frames at it's park, in a misguided attempt to introduce "cultural" sims you get white blonde dudes name Takanashi, and what else is there...
Ah yes, the backround. So much time spent showing off how detailed the backround world is, and yet when I watch Let's plays, guess where the camera is 99% of the time...? That's right: your sim. Your sim is not in the backround, your sim is not looking around. Hilariously (sadly, I should say), the neighborhoods themselves are insanely bland. Does four lots encircled around a central plaza sound familiar? Sure it does, and because this is where your sim will be standing, a lot of the time your view of the city is an empty concrete plaza. Wowowowowow super exciting, huh? You'd have to go out of your way to really view the city, unless you live on select lots that have a good view. I have no idea why they spent this much time working on backround. The backround is more fleshed out than the actual play area! It's called backround for a reason.
I have given this expansion a try a number of times, and a number of times I've considered purchasing. Each time though, I find myself less interested, but more perplexed by how terrible and directionless this pack truly seems. I seriously wonder if the project lead of this pack simply forgot to make a list of priorities or forgot to make a list of features to include, and the result is the team spend ages building city setpieces but forgot to bother with anything else. I absolutely cannot justify purchasing this thing, and I don't thing that's ever going to change.
The message is clear though: quality over quantity. City Living is a mile wide and an inch deep. I've already skipped an expansion for the first time, and given the rather consistent posts about this pack and all the reasons not to bother, I'm definitely not alone. If sales want to continue, hopefully EA takes this as a lesson to steer clear from these kinds of directionless packs in the future.
That was ridiculously lengthy. No worries, I'm sure people will read only what they care to read, or read the headlines of my top 3 only.
But now I want to hear from the rest of you: What are your favorite 3 expansions of all time and what are your least favorites?
1) Supernatural for Sims 3
It was hard to choose which to list as the "best" between this one and my next one, but at the end I consider this one a little more open-ended and diverse. Before Sims 3, I was not a huge fan of fantasy stuff in Sims. I liked realistic, down-to-earth expansions to help make the game more of a Life Simulator. Then this one came along. I feel like if you tried to objectively sit down and rationalize which Sims 3 expansions offered the most raw content - regardless of content quality or how much you liked said content theme - then some expansions clearly had more content than others. Supernatural definitely feels like it was one of the most content-heavy packs of the franchise, for one. For two...? This holds the record by a mile for the most life states in a single pack. Each had a nice little sense of progression with life state-based skills to level, though if that wasn't your cup of tea, Vampires were just complete from the start. The alchemy skill was likewise very expansive and interesting, probably being the most diverse and capable skill in all of Sims 3. To top it all off, the town that shipped with it actually had a lot of unique things going for it. There were gardening competitions at the arboretum, there were trivia challenges at the Vault of Antiquity, there were lots of unique little interactions and unique lots throughout the pack. The Fairy Garden for example seemed to randomly grow certain plants, sometimes growing Life Fruit. The career that came with it was one of the slowest and not great on payments, but to me had some of the most interesting interactions and bonuses; mystics got a blue glow that made good or family-orientated Sims hate you, but evil or outdoorsy sims loved you. (several more too)
The main reason I list this one over my second pick is because I feel this one was ultimately more open-ended and less linear. You could make a witch, become super powerful and just murder people (Fire Blast at a Sim's feat or Thirst Curse on vampires). You could make new witches and have them murder each other for dominance, you could constantly make new sims with new life states and just toy with those and their different dynamics. This pack just gave Sims a lot of unique tools for interacting with each other, so it gives the imaginative mind a lot to play with.
Even though this is a pack that clearly "offends" or scares off a certain type of player, I'd say that for it's target consumer, it did everything right.
2) Open For Business for Sims 2
Almost put this as my number one pick, so having said that...? This one is amazing too. Again, this was a super open-ended pack that combined player freedom with a sense of progression. Starting off, your business probably wasn't very good. Your cashier fumbled over the cash register while trying to find the number 1, your Sim put his foot in his mouth while trying to make a sale, and the guy restocking your supplies restocked his first item around the same time you closed up shop. With time however, both you and your workers acquired skill badges, and every time you saw a sim level up in their respective skill, there was a degree of excitement and a sense of progress. You couldn't wait to see the next day of work and how much more efficient your business got. You were also reluctant to close up shop for the day because running a shop was just so much fun.
If that wasn't enough, the game included some worthwhile skills with it. You may have viewed Flower Arranging as a simple means to make money or an immersive type of business model. Stick to it however, and you may be pleasantly surprised with some of the powerful rewards the skill badge provided at the end. There was a nice bulky amount of skill content, with skills for toy making, cashier, restocking, talking to customers, hairstyling, bot building and flower arranging. Bot Building was especially nice as it offered Servo as the ultimate reward, which was probably one of the most unique life states in Sims 2, function-wise.
This pack single-handedly allowed you to build each and every business in the Sims 2 from the ground up. If you wanted to hand-make every commercial lot, restaurant, club, convenience store and shopping mall in your game...? Open for Business gave you the tools to do it. Once again, the sky was the limit with your imagination being the only thing dictating what could and couldn't be done.
My only complaint is I consider the economy-balancing of this pack to be very short-sighted. Sims that made a purchase in your store actually got their item, but didn't lose any money. This meant if someone bought a §100,000, you gained §100,000 and so did they when they sell it. The game didn't really offer the player a simple and easy way to get rid of that car from the other Sim's inventory without him getting the money, either, so having a high-end store meant you'd quickly see Sim inventory's bloat OR everyone would quickly become rich. A bit disappointing for an otherwise amazing pack.
3) Ambitions for Sims 3
Amongst the Sims 3, I'd say the most content-heavy packs - regardless of whether the content is liked or not - are Supernatural, World Adventures, and Ambitions. Supernatural I already praised, and World Adventures...? I did like World Adventures, but I also feel it's such a niche group it's hard to really love it. Once you did the dungeons, they were repeats that never changed. For a lot of sims, say a single mother of three, you have difficulty justifying her going through an ancient Egyptian tomb on a whim. And on top of that, some of the bugs this expansion brought with it were rather annoying.
But Ambitions...? Once again, this was a content-heavy pack with plenty to do. Comparatively some might say the careers were repetitive, but I'd argue they were only that way if you allowed them to be. The Sims team chose a route where NOT doing your tasks and NOT going to work one day actually didn't penalize your performance, and while some might initially disagree with such a decision, this means if someone does feel their active career is getting grindy and repetitive...? Simply take a break! Simple as that.
Some careers, such as the Ghost Hunter, Private Investigator and Firefighter, were very straightforward and highly interactive. Others, such as the Stylist or Home Designer, were a bit more time consuming, but if customization and giving the whole town a personal touch was your cup of tea? These are your dream come true. And finally, if you simply want to feel more immersed and want your farmer to be officially recognized as a "farmer?" Now you can register at Town Hall as a professional for a number of the game's skills, including a lot of the skills from other expansions. To top it all off, even if you just wanted a bland old normal career like the base game? This pack had one of those too with the Education career. This pack truly had something for everyone, so no matter what kind of career you were in the mood for, this had something for you.
Perhaps overlooked since it wasn't the selling point of the pack....? The two Skills that came with it were great. The Inventing skill was loads of fun, with some practical inventions, some exciting ones, and some entertaining interactions. Detonating objects around town may be costly and frowned upon, but admit it, sometimes being the evil scientist is fun. Simbots were also unique and endearing. In many ways they actually felt inferior to normal Sims, but watching them attempt to interact with a world that was frightened by them was always kind of nice to watch. And if you ever wanted to spice up gameplay a bit and throw your sims a curveball? The Time Machine had loads of outcomes to change Sims lives, such as giving them a child, an elder descendant, a new job, a new relationship, and all kinds of other little outcomes.
The Sculpting career perhaps wasn't as straightforward, but it was definitely expansive. An insane amount of unique designs were available here if you had the time to commit to the skill, so if you wanted a skill to dedicate a Sim to...? One that your roommate sim can spend countless hours on while you focus on another Sim? This was it. Maybe it'd be boring and tedious at first, but once you had a house full of non-melting ice furniture, that was certainly something unique and memorable about that sim.
Once again, I feel this hit the perfect balance between "interaction + balance" and "non-linear freedom." Maybe not quite as memorable or exciting as the other two, but good nonetheless.
Now, onto the....less popular packs...My worst three are:
3) Into the Future for Sims 3
I never understood the appeal of this one. The future neighborhood was always a bit annoying for me because it was in-your-face content around the clock. What if I didn't want the future to be in my face for a time...? Well sad day for me; go back home and neglect Oasis Landing - and this expansion - until I change my mind. I never cared to get any of the careers in Oasis Landing or to stay for an extended period of time.
The problem Into the Future had, at it's core, was that experiencing the content the pack had to offer meant abandoning the base game content and all the other expansion content for an extended period of time. You couldn't really balance it out and have a town full of futuristic technology as well as a bustling city like Bridgeport. It just didn't happen, and at the end of the day, no, this pack was not interesting enough to beat out the others.
One of the skills this pack offered was less of a skill and more of a demand of immersion: Advanced Technology. None of the unlocks were anything spectacular, it was more that this skill was neccesary to watch your sim go from a bumbling idiot at risk of dying every time he used a jetpack, to a future sim that understood the tech. Then there's Bot Building....oh boy, was this a disappointment...
Plumbots, to me, are hands down the most disappointing life state we've ever had. Something about the AI of these things was terrible. Even if you gave them sentience, they mostly just wanted to sit on your sofa and play video games. They had no wishes or desires, and no matter what upgrades you gave them, two things remained constant: they'd hog your computer for video games, or they'd syphon your toaster and break it instead of acknowledging you have a super convenient charger for them that doesn't break when it gives them energy. These things were nothing short of obnoxious, and what's worse, you couldn't kill them. I never wanted one of these, and even selling them demanded a rather annoying trip to the future.
If there's anything to learn from Into the Future, I'd say it's this: avoid packs that compete with existing content instead of synergizing with it. Into the Future foolishly attempted to function as a "replacement" for everything else the game had, and of course it lost. Even as a brief getaway location like university or a vacation world, it was a real hassle because the neighborhood had NOTHING to offer aside from the expansion's own content. You couldn't work your job there, staying meant any of your friends back in your timeline were dying in your absence, there weren't really any locations to experience content from other packs, and seriously someone give me a gun because omg I want to shoot every last plumbot on earth, I hate these things, stop trying to scan me and let me sleep. Never again. Never again should we see such a pack so poorly executed.
2) Island Paradise for Sims 3
This one is on this list not so much for having lame features, but for breaking records in terms of bugs and instability. This expansion was 100% dependent on it's exclusive neighborhood for you to experience it's content in full. You weren't really going to have half the fun experimenting with all the new features it had if you tried doing so in one of the older neighborhoods. The problem is that EA so haphazardly tossed together the neighborhood that for a ridiculous amount of users, the expansion did not even function. I'm sure many of us know all too well just how prone to freezing and corruption this town is, but what's truly sad is how avoidable it all was.
A major cause of lag for Isla Paradiso is routing issues for NPCs. That's a norm for Sims 3, and I know Starlight Shores for example has a spot that horses tend to get stuck on, but it's understandable EA might miss that spot in testing, right....? Well, the issues in Isla Paradiso are a little less forgivable. For one thing, one of the premade families has their front door marked as the door on their third story roof. Such a simple, stupid little mistake means this poor family is constantly failing to enter their own home, and you suffer from lag because of it. Another guy has his bathtub facing the wrong way, so when it's bath time for him? It's lag time for you! On top of all that, the whole ocean traveling system was perhaps a bit ambitious, as certain locations out on water can cause all kinds of routing issues when NPCs try to reach you.
I will not even comment on the quality of existing features that come with this pack, cause to be frank, I haven't FULLY experienced them and doubt I ever will. That's not for lack of trying though; this pack practically demands you troubleshoot the crap out of it to get it functional. And for that reason...?
This pack absolutely demands a spot on this list as a testament to how disgustingly laggy products can be and how yes, we will get sick of it and stop purchasing if EA neglects bug fixes and playtesting. Never was this expansion pack patched, and sadly, I question if EA learned their lesson. I was so appalled by this pack that I actually googled to try and understand why a class-action lawsuit hadn't been filed since this pack very debateably doesn't even serve it's promised functions, and it'd make for a very interesting court case regarding how buggy a product is allowed to be before it's considered a sham. Turns out the User Agreement we've all signed by purchasing EA products has you agreeing you'll never partake in a class-action lawsuit, and boy I'm sure that came in handy for this pack; yeah you could individually demand a refund, but EA knows not everyone will bother. The only people that should celebrate Isla Paradiso are EA's lawyers, as I'm sure they all enjoyed a nice Christmas bonus that year.
All I ask in regards to the mistakes of Island Paradise...? Never do that again EA, and if they do...? Never purchase again.
1) City Living for Sims 4
This expansion marks a change for me and the Sims franchise. I purchased every Sims 1 and Sims 2 expansion without much concern; I trusted their quality. Sims 3 I hesitated and got some late, but I eventually gave all of them a chance. Sims 4...? City Living is the first expansion I've ever skipped, and I have zero regrets.
I'm sure some of you may be wondering how I can call this the worst expansion ever when I've not played it. I'll start by saying I do believe we're at a day and age when you can get a feel for a video game's quality by watching Let's Plays. I was open to the concept of this pack, I watched the preview livestreams by the Sims team whilst scratching my head and wondering where the features were, and even after I watched several Let's plays by several youtubers to see if I was missing anything. I googled info, I read up as much as I can, I've tried to be as informed as possible....and I still cannot justify a purchase, even though this pack often feels like it's permanently on sale.
The main selling point of the pack, according to the title, is life in the city. The first thing that comes to mind is the apartments, which are obviously unique and new. However, watching videos of apartment life, I struggle to pinpoint any benefit to it. All I see is downsides bombarding the player...and this is "fun?" Why would I choose an apartment over a house? When they updated Sims 4 with that patch that gave kid sims a monster under the bed, I'm sure plenty of us quickly grew so tired of it that we bought the night light or bought every kid a double bed. It was cute at first, perhaps, but after a bit, it's just something tedious to do in the middle of the night. How is yelling at my neighbors about noise any different? I might not mind this if I saw a mix of upsides and downsides to life in an apartment, but again, I see no upsides. The only potential "upside" is that friends and neighbors pop in to hang out with you periodically, but no, I don't consider that an upside. Famously, they have a terrible habit of drinking water obsessively and creating lots of dish work for you once they leave. They also often trigger a social event, so if you're about to travel and a neighbor pops in, you have to cancel the event before you can proceed. A minor nitpick perhaps, but when it's a constant thing, yeah I see it getting annoying. I personally appreciate a sense of control in my own home, but when Sims can barge into my home and start an event or drink my water without me having any control until I stop what I'm doing and tell them to shove off...? Oh yeah, I'm annoyed.
Then we have the festivals. These have got to be the most mediocre events I've ever seen. I look at them, and again I question what's the attraction. Unless you have the goal of collecting all the new recipes, there's no motivation to visit. Even the snowglobes seem to often appear in bulk at the Flea Market, singlehandedly completing the collection the moment you begin it. Geekcon, the Romance Festival, Humor and Hijinks and the Spice Festival all offer nothing new, unless you want to count the food stalls as new for Spice Festival. Flea market is new, but from what I've seen, the items on sale tend to repeat heavily, the only major variance being whatever collection is on sale. Still, this one is at least salvageable since you can trade with other sims that are there to try and complete collections. But one out of five...? 20% of your festivals are worth a regular visit...? That's well below failing.
If that weren't bland enough, I found a website showing off the pay and the rewards of the new careers. I have no idea why EA allowed this to happen, but these careers have next to zero unique rewards. Other careers tend to have 10 unique rewards, but these new ones...? Man, you're lucky if you get two. Hilariously, I saw pictures of the rooms you unlock at level 10. Seriously, look these up: they use base game furniture and have nothing of interest in them. It's so sad and pathetic to look at it gives me Fremdschaemen. Top it off, the careers are some of the worst paying careers in the game. I have no problem with poorly paying careers; I welcome those, actually and wish we had more. However, I think a spectrum of good and bad is nice, and from what I've seen, the best career is just below average in pay. It seems VERY disappointing for those wanting new careers to play with. It seems being an internet celeb and selling out constantly is the only career worth any money at all, though that of course demands work in your off-hours.
What remains...? The Singing skill seems like a gimmick. Fun at first, I'm sure, but probably something you're done with by the third time you level it past terrible range. I feel like it's more fun to watch sims suck at singing, so I feel like it actually gets more dull as it improves. The City aspiration seems TERRIBLE, with the least appetizing reward trait in the game; the aspiration trait is better for crying out loud. Famously the devs bragged about folding chairs and talking toilets, and that speaks volumes of how content-sparse this pack is. The clothing is hit or miss and personally I'm not a fan, a lot of people complain about lag in the city and I've seen Let's Players consistently drop frames at it's park, in a misguided attempt to introduce "cultural" sims you get white blonde dudes name Takanashi, and what else is there...
Ah yes, the backround. So much time spent showing off how detailed the backround world is, and yet when I watch Let's plays, guess where the camera is 99% of the time...? That's right: your sim. Your sim is not in the backround, your sim is not looking around. Hilariously (sadly, I should say), the neighborhoods themselves are insanely bland. Does four lots encircled around a central plaza sound familiar? Sure it does, and because this is where your sim will be standing, a lot of the time your view of the city is an empty concrete plaza. Wowowowowow super exciting, huh? You'd have to go out of your way to really view the city, unless you live on select lots that have a good view. I have no idea why they spent this much time working on backround. The backround is more fleshed out than the actual play area! It's called backround for a reason.
I have given this expansion a try a number of times, and a number of times I've considered purchasing. Each time though, I find myself less interested, but more perplexed by how terrible and directionless this pack truly seems. I seriously wonder if the project lead of this pack simply forgot to make a list of priorities or forgot to make a list of features to include, and the result is the team spend ages building city setpieces but forgot to bother with anything else. I absolutely cannot justify purchasing this thing, and I don't thing that's ever going to change.
The message is clear though: quality over quantity. City Living is a mile wide and an inch deep. I've already skipped an expansion for the first time, and given the rather consistent posts about this pack and all the reasons not to bother, I'm definitely not alone. If sales want to continue, hopefully EA takes this as a lesson to steer clear from these kinds of directionless packs in the future.
That was ridiculously lengthy. No worries, I'm sure people will read only what they care to read, or read the headlines of my top 3 only.
But now I want to hear from the rest of you: What are your favorite 3 expansions of all time and what are your least favorites?
"Who are you, that do not know your history?"
9
Comments
My three favorite expansion packs are Supernatural (S3), Ambitions (S3) and Late Night (S3) (I hesitated between Late Night and World Adventures). Had Get To Work got more than three careers it might have made my top 3, but the issue is that it's only 3 careers, and on that I feel like only scientist and doctor are fun, detective is boring as 🐸🐸🐸🐸, so to me only 2 careers wouldn't be enough to put it on my top 3. I'm someone that love game play, I'm not so much about story telling, so packs like Generations or Seasons, isn't my cup of tea, I'm not saying they are not good packs, just not my favorites.
The three I like the least is Island Paradise (S3), it had the potential to be a great pack, but it unfortunately didn't deliver, it's pretty much unplayable which is disappointing, then Showtime (S3) which to me is forgettable in the sense that there was nothing to me that was like ''wow'' or that I would miss if the pack didn't existed, and then City Living (S4) (probably a unpopular opinion here), but to me that pack is empty, the City which was supposed to be big is empty, there's almost no where to go, living in the apartments is a bad experience, the festivals are just things we could already do in the base game, a bunch of glitches and bugs, I know all packs come with glitches and bugs, but seriously CL win it, I've got the pack as a gift from a friend I feel bad for my friend to have wasted 40$ on that, City Living is just about look and esthetic which to me doesn't worth 40$, at 40$ I expect game play, I expect something new, not just base game stuff and an illusion of a fake City.
If I had to name one for each the best and worse expansion pack, Supernatural is my favorite and City Living is my worse pack.
1. Sims 2 Open For Business
2. Sims 4 Get To Work
3. Sims 3 Generations
Worst
1. Sims 3 Into The Future
1) Sims 3 Generations:
It really gave the life stages the milestones that we all have in life. The mischievous moody teen, the middle life crisis of adulthood, the imagination of kids. Not to mention the funny imaginary friend, which I think we've all known someone with one in our lives lol. Adding the tiny school clubs to the game was also a nice gesture and something I could personally relate to. It came in handy beautifully for stories. Bachlorette/Bachelor parties were a blast and I get excited every-time I have to throw one lol there always seems to have a weird guest come along at the parties. As I've said before, I enjoy the 'cradle to grave' experience, and this expansion truly enhanced it for me. To most Generations, was an extremely small expansion. But to me it made a big big difference in my game
2) Sims 2/3 Seasons:
My gosh what a revolution. Seasons (both versions) truly made the sims feel super alive to me. Mind you, I've never been much of a gardener (not a fan of getting my hands dirty lol), but I did love the aspect of gardening and fishing in this expansion (TS2wise). It didn't feel like a total chore like most iterations but a hobby. Now to weather: I think it's simply the beauty of the sims thinking "Hey it's pretty chilly outside, I better wear a jacket." and even going out to rake the leaves, or going out making a igloo or snowman. I loved how TS3 enhanced this experience with hoildays. Autumn the kids would dress up and run around the neighborhood for candy. Winter, the family and friends could get together and open presents, as well as go snowboarding! Spring was the romantic season for all the teens and adults as well as a cute time for the kids to go egg hunting!! Finally summer was the season of fun in the sun, going swiming and getting a tan were one of my favorite features for summer, but my gosh those hotdog contests
3) Sims 2/3 University:
There was something totally magical about sending your teens to college and becoming the college kids that we know all to well. It was practically a giant milestone that you just couldn't pass up. A place for your sims to not only follow their dreams careers, but could possibly gain a larger position in it than the average sim. In TS2 I love the different college selection one could go to, even though it didn't truly affected the player the selection they took, it was nice for one to go a college that seemed to fit them. The interactions, toga parties, sororities and decorating their dorm, really gave someone (I was around 10 or 11 when TS2 university came out lol) like me a really funny way of looking at college. As I said above, this place was truly where the young adults (college kids) shined imo and giving them a 'inbetween' feel. TS3 though also enhanced it a bit, minus the drawback of college selection. The clique and rep feature really gave YA that true 'inbetween' feeling. I also loved the fact that we could also attend class with them, it was rather funny watching them either be the "teachers pet" or "the sleepy student"
Worst? Well I don't really have one that I actually "hate" unfavorites sure. Soo, I'll say my 3 "unfavorites"
1) World Adventure
Mind you, like I said above, no hates. It's simply my 'unfavorite' lol. But why, why, why why?! Why have soo many beautiful vacation areas..only to 'explore' tombs? it baffles me to this day
2) Supernatural
Again though, personal preference. Optional turn off cools
3) Late Night....
The original uncontrollable population of vampires...the overpopulated celebrities x_x take me awaay! It's a shame though, I actually liked the celebrity idea. However to have soo many of them in one town...kinda takes away the charm. Same with vampires..well I've never been a fan of them, but I actually didn't mind Nightlife's vamps because they genuinely seemed "rare" and mysterious, not heavily bite breeding like rabbits
The rest of the TS2 & TS3: I'm pretty netural and love them
TS4 expansions: So far I don't have a favorite yet, CL,GTW,GT are "meh" so far for me. So hopefully one will come along that might make it into my favorite list
1. Sims Makin' Magic: I would love to see the return of the pet dragons, Magic Town, the little challenges to get special ingredients, the crystals and the magical duels.
2. Sims 1 Unleashed: Not only did it add Pets, it also added an entirely new section to the neighbourhood, Old Town. This was a massive expansion and it has not yet been matched by any other Pets expansion pack.
3. Sims 2 Seasons: Having seasons was magical and great for storytelling. I also loved the emphasis on family play.
Worst:
Sims 4 City Living : I have actually purchased this pack and truly wish I hadn't. I saw the world map online and was doubtful, but the reviews were so positive, praising the ethnic diversity and how it made the sims feel like an entirely different game etc., I decided to buy it. To be honest San Myshuno is just too small, I barely have any space to put restaurants and shops and feel suffocated in the districts. The Sims 2 Nightlife was just so much bigger content wise, albeit not visually stunning. For example, you could contact the matchmaker and score yourself a date you had insane chemistry with, then visit the bowling gallery, a posh restaurant, before living it up in one of the nightclubs with vampires, woohoo in the photo booth and then drive home in your brand new car. Sims 4 Apartments are merely shells, there are no burglars or police officers (Seriously a city without crime?), no roommate system, and the neighbours are just random. I agree that the City aspiration is annoying, and so are the festivals. The thing I find the most horrendous about the Sims City Living is the lack of an elevator animation: you are just teleported outside. This is just so tremendously slack, I cannot bear to look at my sims leaving their apartments.
TS3 Generations: I love family play and this pack really expanded the game as a whole and made teens, toddlers and children fell more unique and gave sims overall more personality and made weddings really fun to plan (bachelor/bachelorette parties were hilarious)
TS2 Open for Business: This pack was one of the packs I wanted the most ever but had to wait for Christmas lol. I love the fact that you can own anything, any type of lot and hire whomever you wanted to work there. Also being able to build and then visit shops to buy things...I feel like this will go down in sims history as one of the best expansion packs ever.
TS3 Island Paradise: I know this pack gets a lot of flack for the routing issues but I never really experienced this. This pack was so unique and original and really changed how I played the Sims 3 and got me back into playing the Sims 3. I absolutely loved the boats and houseboats. I loved the hidden islands that you could unlock...I just loved it all lol.
The Worst:
TS3 Pets: Controversial I know but this pack nearly made my game unplayable and I just found pets themselves to be really, really boring and annoying to take care of. I liked that the pets CAS was really in depth but not much else about this pack appeals to me.
TS4 Get Together: Being one of the smallest EP's in sims history this pack isn't too bad but I feel like there was hardly anything added. Clubs are one of the best features of TS4 but for a pack that was supposedly about hanging out with friends and clubs why didn't they add a tonne of new things for sims to do together? Insetead they just focused on the party aspects insetad of going deeper. I feel like this pack could have introduced sports, bands and a whole lot of new things...but the most we got was partying. However I did like this pack more than I thought I would.
TS4 City Living: Easily the worst EP in Sims history...so far. This is not an expansion pack, it's a world pack with a few added extras. The 'apartments' are not fun. They don't change anything and the fact you can't build your own makes no sense to me. The elevators are complete garbage. The festivals really aren't festivals and don't change or add anything, it just feels like a bunch of sims hanging out in a strangely decorated area. This pack didn't do what I think expansion packs should do and expand on anything. Nothing (aside from objects) can be used outside the world (which I hate the world too but that's neither here or there.) I'm so glad I got this pack for half price...but even then it still felt overpriced. This was just a bad pack.
Sims 3: Into The Future
This was the first expansion pack in the entire franchise that I wasn't even slightly excited for. It didn't appeal to me at all, but I ended up buying it just for the sake of completing my Sims 3 collection. I used the features like once or twice and still wasn't amazed. I literally use none of the content included in this pack. Not even the clothes (which are honestly beyond ugly). Plus, I really hate how the houses in the future where your descendants are living don't even look futuristic at all. They just look like regular modern day houses with no technology (which is very ironic since it's the future). I feel like this pack could've been better, but wasn't brought to its full potential.
Sims 3: World Adventures
Don't get me wrong... I sometimes enjoy the adventures that our Sims can go on, but I feel like this expansion pack could've been A LOT better (especially since it was the first for Sims 3). The main thing that peeves me about this pack is that it felt like it was meant to be a "replacement" for vacations, but really wasn't. I think that's mostly what made me dislike it so much. I also didn't like how our Sims can't really live in the foreign locations themselves as their home. I think it could've been better if that was at least an option (especially since it could've been a decent substitute for those who want more than one world at a time in a save file). While some adventures may be fun, it wasn't a great expansion pack for me. I think the best thing that came out of this pack were some of the french clothing and the additional recipes our Sims can buy.
Sims 3: Ambitions
Honestly, the main reason I even considered getting this expansion pack in the first place is because of the trampoline, washer, and dryer (which soon became annoying when the lot will start being filled with dirty laundry). I didn't really care much for the active careers. Although I did have fun with some of them (like the Fashion career), I hardly found myself really using any of the features that came with this pack. I think the best part of this pack were some of the objects. I also like how tattoos were added in this game as well (and later patched in). It was an interesting new feature. Other than that, it wasn't a very good expansion pack (at least not for me).
Ironically, The Sims 3 is my favorite game in the franchise, but it seems like all my "worst" packs are from there though. I honestly didn't realize that until now... is that bad? lol
Best
Sims 2: Seasons
When I was younger, I always wanted seasons and weather to be in The Sims! I was so excited when it was officially announced to be the 5th expansion pack for Sims 2. I remember checking The Sims 2 website daily for updates about the game. It was just so exciting and interesting to have such a brand new feature added to The Sims! Plus, I was finally able to make logical use of The Sims 2: Happy Holiday stuff pack (I would pretend Christmas came every winter and decorate the house).
Sims 3: Seasons
Most of the reasons are the same as Sims 2. I was just really excited to have Seasons in the game again, but I think this time was better because holidays were actually added to the game (so I no longer needed to pretend). I also liked the festival idea as well. It was also interesting to have control over what kind of weather occurs in the game. Sims 3: Seasons just added a whole new sense of realism to the game that even Sims 2: Seasons wasn't able to. The only thing I didn't care for was the return of aliens. I never really cared for them at all.
Sims 4: Get Together
I'll admit that I was one of the people who thought this expansion pack looked really pathetic at first, but I actually ended up loving it a lot! I really love the club system and how you can't choose which activities the members of your club can or can't do. It's also nice to have (almost) full control of what other Sims do while you're in a group or club gathering. The clothes and objects that came with this game were also really cool. I think the clothes are the most fashionable in the game. I also think the dance skill was an interesting addition.
Sims 1: Hot Date
Sims 2: Seasons
Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff
Sims 3: Seasons
Sims 3: 70's, 80's, & 90's Stuff
Sims 4: Seasons
Sims 4: Paranormal Stuff
Sims 4: Strangerville Game Pack
My favorites are the exact same! I'm so hoping for a TS3-style Generations expansion for TS4!
As far as least favorites go, I don't really have any because I only purchase packs that I know for certain will appeal to me.
Seasons (TS2& 3) because it made the game so much more realistic, in both games weather added so much game play and opened up so many more options for story telling.
Pets (TS2 and 3) because well we got pets! Got to love some 4 legged friends. I love the fact that in TS3 we got horses for the first time.
The Sims 1 Superstar. I love this pack, we have never really had anything like it since. The sims 3 had a celeb system but it was nothing like this. It is challenging but it's so much fun!
I found it really hard to just give 3 favourites as there are so many I love!
On to my least favourite:
The sims 4 Get to work - I was really excited for this pack as first of all it gave us new careers which we badly needed but I've been sorely disappointed. I loathe the careers. I'm not a fan of being told: "Talk to co worker" "mop up puddle" "make beds" and then just repeating it all day. Especially when it's the same things that pop up on your check list. It's like really I have to go and talk to my co worker AGAIN about his day? I'm not a fan of check lists and I think the active careers are such a let down in comparison to the sims 3 active careers. I also thought it was a missed opportunity to add back in police officers and I find it bizarre that your sick sim can't visit the hospital themselves.
The Sims 4 City Living - I really wish this wasn't on here but again I was super excited to get it but after a few hours I couldn't he,p but think "is this it?" Apartments are alright. But if I'm honest I still prefer The Sims 2 apartments. I just prefer the overall experience of TS2 apartments. In the sims 4 it seems everyone is an annoying neighbor. If they aren't making noise then they want to come over all the friggin time. I miss landlords that were there on the lot all day and that could be called upon to fix anything. I also miss the fact that if your sims were being loud and if their apartment was smelly the land lord would come automatically and pay you a visit. He also came if you didn't pay rent on time. TS2 landlord actually felt useful and served a purpose, I feel the sims 4 land lords were added as an afterthought and the bare minimum was given to them.
I also miss room mates and the elavator. I also really dislike the fact that most of city living is just back ground. Yes it's pretty but i would rather have more buildings and things my sims can interact with. For a city where are the shops? Instead we get another bar and another gym which is fine but we already had those in every city so it was nothing new. Even the festivals were mostly recycled content and I was really disappointed that they only lasted for a few hours.
Get together - I like the world, don't really see the need for clubs as my sims can hang out anyway. I'm not really bothered about club points or them wearing uniforms and doing club handshakes. I also think the in game clubs are boring anyway as even the most "exclusive" club anyone and their dog could join.
This would probably be a good time for me to clarify that I mean Expansion packs specifically. I feel if we compared Expansions to Stuff Packs, everyone's worsts list would just be stuff packs. Game packs I feel would likewise spark debate about if it's fair to compare them to Expansions (also I'm unsure anyone would list the Game Packs we have as either bests or worsts of all time anyways), so I'd rather just focus on a discussion with EPs instead of that, lest half the thread be distracted with discussing if GPs count as EPs or not.
1 - Sims 3 Into the Future. It's hard to quantify what exactly I hate about this pack but just thinking about it annoys me. Really disappointing that this was the final EP for the Sims 3.
2 - Sims 3 World Adventures. A huge opportunity that totally went to waste. The new worlds were really boring and there wasn't much to do.
3 - Sim 4 City Living. A lot more could have been made of this. I was originally fine with not being able to build your own apartments but now I find it extremely irritating because I can't get them exactly how I want - whether it's the shape or the wall height. I really have no idea why they thought imposing such restrictions was even remotely a good idea. I don't like the Fashion District or Uptown either - they're both elevated and I find it odd, and more to the point - they're just boring.
TS2 Seasons or TS2 Open for Business would probably be my #1 EP. I actually like TS3 Island Paradise but it really epitomised TS3 - glitchy, unstable, almost unplayable. They should have made more of an attempt to fix the problems of this game before abandoning it entirely.
Sims 3 Seasons
Sims 3 Supernarural
Sims 2 apartment life
Worst:
Sims 3 Showtime
Sims 4 get to work
Sims 3 world adventures
The Best
Get Together- I'm a huge fan of that world and how lovely it is. The club system was groundbreaking as a tool for me to use to manipulate my sim in large numbers without mods or cheating. I've lightened up on club play and only have 2 in my current world but they are very useful when I play them. I use the group system often otherwise once I get my sims to a place or for welcome wagon ect.. or just having sims over.
Get To Work- I know I'm in the minority but I can finally have a mad scientist.. and I love the science toys. I finally got to enjoy playing with aliens in the Sims series through this EP. I don't use the retail part other than to download stores ect from the gallery but I didn't use retail in past games either so that's kind of a wash there. I don't always play the GTW jobs or send them to work every day. I sometimes just get them to the top and enjoy the benefits. I do enjoy playing the the other careers also .. just not as much.
Sims 1 Superstar- I'm hoping for something anything similar to this but expanded. I liked the working through the careers to get better and then get to the top. I want a singing career, a show, a band.. now. I had much fun with this pack but I had to use greening mods or cheats to get my sims through the days. I didn't care for the stalker fan though.
(I wanted to put Sims 2 University here but it took such a long time to get through it.. I did play the heck out of it though and seriously want something like this)
The Worst
Tie for Pets 1 and 2- I just hated that you couldn't control the neighbor pets or strays and had to install mods ... usually I'd just leave them out when I had to reinstall and didn't miss them. it was easier not to have them in the game. I did try the pets in my played household. I have fond memories of Ginia Kat and some of the other premades from Sims 1 but after the initial try at playing through I abandoned them. I'm hoping we have more control in general and can have fun and downtime with the pets when it comes to 4 I really want to enjoy them this time through.
City Living Sims 4- I don't use the apartments at all. I don't like the closed in feel and I don't enjoy visiting them on my sims. This is just a personal preference but I don't get it or why I would ever choose to live in one. I haven't given the festivals much of a chance either... the loud noise that announces them has put a sour taste in my mouth but I'll try them out more thoroughly eventually. I haven't even attempted to do the aspiration included. I can't say I don't ever want there to be a future sims apartment style pack but I just don't get it really. I basically bought it for the skills, the stuff and the hair and the lot traits .. all of which I enjoy using. I don't have any need to uninstall it as I can just not chose to use the portions I dislike.. except for that announcement noise... I am back and forth on whether it's a bad pack though or just not to my taste or preference. I know I played sims 2 apartment life a bit more but still preferred to put my sims in a house at that time too. I hope I can eventually enjoy things that I've seen screenshots of related to living in an apartment. I just have no desire to try it at the moment.
1) TS1 Making Magic - the most elaborate magic system we ever had (unless there was another in TS3, which I never played), the witches in TS2 felt meh in comparison and didn't even get their own world.
2) TS2 Seasons - just because I love seasons and weather.
3) Pretty much everything else, there's rarely an expansion pack that doesn't add something I like to the game.
Worst:
1) TS1 Superstar (or whatever the exact name was) - I found it more frustrating than entertaining most of the time, and forgettable enough that I barely even remember it.
2) TS2 Free Time - would have been okay as a stuff pack, but for a full-blown expansion, I feel it didn't really add anything new except for a few more activities and hobbies that I didn't care about.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
Best
1. Open for Business
2. Seasons Sims 2
3. Nightlife
Worst
1. Get to Work
2. Ambitions
3. City Living
1. Sims 3 World Adventures
2. Sims 3 Late Night
3. Sims 3 Show Time
Worst
1. Sims 4 City Living
2. Sims 4 Get to Work
3. Sims 3 Ambitions
I think GTW is probably the most dire EP but I had to put City Living as number 1 because it fails at everything and succeeds at nothing. The city is nothing like a city; it is bland, too small and offers little new gameplay , and the non-functioning elevator and talking toilet cannot be forgiven. Add in the lack of buildable apartments, festivals that use base game content and have very little of anything that is unique, and lets not forget there is no proper animation of the eating contest like we got in previous EPs. No, City Living is just terrible. And don't mention the social events that prevent your sim from travelling.
Sims 4 Get to work: tried to do too much and left us with half-finished features.
Sims 3 Into the future: I'm a diehard scifi fan, yet this pack bore me to death.
Sims 2 Open for business: Became a huge grind fest for me. I was probably playing it wrong I don't know.
Best
Sims 3 Pets: Mainly the pets, their customization and that you could control them.
Sims 3 Seasons: This one is probably my favorite in the entire franchise.
Sims 2 Bon voyage: Plain old good and quirky sims 2 fun, I wish for packs like this in ts4.
supernatural not my idea of game play
Vampires for the same reason
sims 3 Into the future so boring, I liked the area when it was utopia and not, But I hardly ever went there.
sims3 show time where you can become a super star and all other sims were more interested in how popular they were and wouldn't talk to others lower in popularity then themselves. installed it played for about three days then uninstalled it again.
my best
sims3 world adventure
seasons
generations
Island ??? I hope they bring this into sims4
pets
sims4
get to work
City living
all of it except Vampires.
I do agree with @aaronjc123 about city living.
I enjoy playing in the city but I don't like the restrictions and I don't like all the empty cant use spaces.
edit to add, although I like City Living, my sims who live there don't have neighbours. I got tired of noisy neighbours waking my sims up in the middle of the night. so the apartments next to them are now all empty. which is sad and lonely. I don't visit the posh district unless its a festival I want to go to. and my sims never live there, I hate the apartments there, they are too big.
I like the spice district only, I like the small apartments, and the play area outside for the kids and adults.
I like the apartments with the balconies but the area where they are is boring with nothing to do. without having a loading screen.
I like the background but wish we had more control of the apartments as to size and outdoor spaces. I dislike empty outside spaces. If we could make each district to our own personal liking it would be so much better.
Sims 2 Apartment Life
Sims 2 Open For Business
Sims 3 World Adventures
The Worst:
Everything else for Sims 3
The Best
This pack is super addictive. I remember we were nowhere near finished playing it with my sister when sims 2 came out. The setup to do magic is really challenging, discovering the spells, collecting the right ingredients, learning to duel to earn magic coins, waiting for the magical things to grow on your yard. For me the best was moving into an exclusive residential area near in the magic town. The music is still the best the series has seen. I have played this TS1 again recently, but I don't do it very often because once you start it's very hard to stop. You would have to reserve a full day or perhaps a week for it.
I loved the ability to set different seasons in different neighbourhoods. It added really great customisability and was especially great for the sub neighbourhoods. I don't know what to say really, it was my first pack with weather in sims and it's still my first pack with weather in sims and that alone is superior. I moved on my own around the time this pack game out, so I only got to play it on short visits and later when I got UC. Writing this I realized that I haven't been very deeply invested in all of it's features or have forgotten that they came with the pack. I'm still gonna call it my number two favourite. Changing seasons add the rhythm into the game, it's like nature's heartbeat and it was well done.
The Sims 4 packs in general haven't been as memorable to me as some of the earlier ones. Probably because I've seen it all before. However Get Together offered something I had not seen before: the customisable club system. The club systems that we have had before just don't compare. I love Windenburg for it's variety and size, I also like the secret lots. Get Together offers some new objects and such, but to me those are just the icing on the cake, what I'm looking for in a expansion is something game changing and the clubs did that to me.
The Worst
I don't hate this EP. I got it in a sale and I play with the content. I just think it's so badly put together. I haven't played with the retail system much, when I tried my sims get losing their bakery because they moved house a couple of times. From what I've seen and read I don't really want to try the retail. TS2 Open for business was my least favourite EP for a long time, but there were few things I eventually learned to enjoy: selling the new items my sims had crafted, earning work related medals and making my rich sims purchase community lots to set up who works there. None of this is available and I'm just not sure what's the point. The careers are okay, but not good enough to save the pack.
I hated having to send my sims away to have the life stage and then they would be stuck there. Also they would always cry about it if they didn't get to the university. Getting a degree was boring as plum(!!!). I really dislike grinding in a sims game. The pack had some good things, but the basic set up annoyed me so much and it's one of the main reasons why I'm not looking forward to see univeristy brought into TS4.
I have played TS3 very little. I wanted to leave it outside the poll, but didn't know what other pack to add. In all honesty Late Night is my least favourite EP. I got it with the base game, so it's difficult for me compare the content. It didn't make me more interested in TS3 and that's why I'm not happy with it.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
1. Island Paradise (Sims 3) - This ended up being a $20 coaster for me because it made my Sims 3 games completely unplayable with the game breaking lag and all of the bug issues, which was super disappointing because I was really looking forward to playing it. The only good thing about it is that I got it half off. I would have been very, very angry if I'd paid full price for it. It was also the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed me into giving up on the Sims 3 entirely and switching to Sims 4 - which is something I don't regret at all.
2. Open for Business (Sims 2) - Other players wax poetic about how amazing this expansion was, but I found making and running businesses in this expansion a tedious grind where you struggle to make money and keep your sims needs up. I ran one flower shop for awhile, got super bored, made a different family and never used the content again.
3. University (Sims 3) - There were a lot of ideas that I really liked (comic book stores, bowling, graffiti, fraternities/sororities), but the execution was super buggy and flat out terrible. My dorms ended up full of elders who constantly died, the house parties got really buggy and didn't work quite often, and it ended up becoming a treadmill I'd put my sims on to get them out of there as quickly as possible. It was kind of a surprise considering how much I loved Sims 2 University and how many hours I spent playing that expansion.
Best:
1. Seasons (Sims 3) - Weather just completes a sims game for me. It adds so much immersion and daily gameplay that the Sims series never feels truly fleshed out to me until we finally get it. It was especially gorgeous in the Sims 3 - although I found a lot of the seasonal festivals to be a bust because the lots they were on were mostly empty. I really hope that we're getting it for the Sims 4 sometime this year.
2. Ambitions (Sims 3) - Tons of new skills, jobs and things to do for our sims which was great, but the reason I loved this expansion so much was because it had Twinbrook, which is my all time favorite Sim town. I played tons of hours and so many families on the swampy side of that town which was super atmospheric and downright gorgeous - especially when the fog rolled in.
3. City Living (Sims 4) - This is my favorite expansion for the Sims 4 so far - which apparently makes me a weirdo, considering how many people in this thread hate it, lol. I use the content from this expansion all of the time, from the new skills (karaoke is super hilarious) and recipes, to the apartments, to the food stands, to the collectables, to the new clothes in CAS. I like the festivals, they are so much better than the ones in Seasons because people actually show up to interact with. I like the noisy neighbors because they add a touch of realism and some of the negative lot traits. And I actually love that we don't have to wait for elevators, considering how much of a goat rodeo it was to get sims on them in Late Night.
P.S. Generations would have made the best list, because the content for that pack was fantastic, if it weren't for the fact that I really feel like most of the content for that expansion should have been in the base game. It truly made families come alive, but splitting that content out into an expansion really felt like a cash grab to me.
As for my list, hmm I'd have to think.
I'm amused that there are two people aside of me who listed Makin Magic (TS1) and Seasons (TS2) in their top three
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
1. Sims 2 OFB
- I loved the retail part. And I know I am in the minority, but I loved that time stopped for the members of the household that didn't travel with me, so they weren't neglected. They would just be played while the business owner had to sleep when coming back home. And real home businesses, cash registers, and owning venues.
2. Sims 2 University
- I usually love playing big families, but also love the break from them when playing single sims or dorm/frats. But again, only useful when time actually stops for the rest or I can still actively control them in an open world. I liked the study hard or party hard stage of my sims life, that had an end.
3. Sims 2/3 Seasons
- The realism of it. The unpredictability (in a way that still makes sense). A reason to wear seasonal clothing.
Honorable mention Sims 4 Get Together. Surprisingly good. Horrible marketed. Loved the world, clubs fix so many issues I have with the game. My favorite is to use it to prevent the game from using my inactive sims as NPCs that are behaving totally out of character according to how I imagine their personalities.
Worst:
1. Sims 4 Get to Work
- They tried to do too much in this pack, and everything was just too limited. No home businesses, at the same time as I have to bring the whole family along to a retail lot, unless I want them to not have their homework/work chores/skills/aspirations progressing. Bring them along, and build your business as a home business lot, but you still have to own another lot to pay bills on (but hey, that gives apartments from CL a use). Combined with only getting 4 lots(????). Active careers simply don't mesh with my game style (as I really don't like to leave sims behind while time is passing), and I find them lacking replayability as well.
2. Sims 4 City Living
- It is claustrophobic. And really doesn't mesh with my style of playing by whims. So many whims in TS4 revolve around purchasing objects, which the sims have no room for or are not allowed to place in apartments. The plazas aren't visible while the camera is in the apartment, due to being on a different level. The camera bouncing is annoying. If only each building had an editable common area, the apartments would be a lot more useful for me. Instead we get plazas, that might look nice, but offer just about nothing to do - with the cheapest district actually being the best. Too bad playing basket doesn't count as working out for athletes, so they still need gym equipment or daily trips to the gym as jogging in the city is bugged too. I like 3 out of 5 festivals, so not bad, but they are easily bugged if you don't stay until they finish (+2 hours to clean up), and they don't offer enough to do for a whole family for that long. And seriously, they actually took the items their own data shows to be the least used items in the game, and built festivals around that? Why not accept that people didn't like those things, instead of building a whole EP feature around the least used items in the game (voodoo doll, giant telescopes and spaceships)? And this is from someone who already has a giant telescope on every single lot in the world as I play by whims (and they all want one) and I actually like the GeekCon. At least this EP comes with more lots than GTW even if I only use the few where lot type can be changed + the penthouses. (And why oh why can the center park not be changed? There is nothing special about the lot itself, except in the surrounding neighborhood, so why not have the lot type editable but incl a trait that can't be removed which makes the neighborhood function?). Semi-active careers are better than active careers (yet still doesn't mesh too well with my rotational play. They don't get promotions when working from home if you have rotated, and I rotate daily, so that would be: never).
3. Sims 3 Pets
- I like pets, I just don't want to control them, and don't want to pretend being one. If I could have autonomy off for sims, and on for the pets, that would be acceptable.
Dishonorable mention: TS3 World Adventures. I love adventure games (but this is not the strength of the sims), I loved the worlds, loved the new skills, but not even mods could make that expansion useful for rotational players. (I had to actually have a copy of the 3 worlds for each household in the game, and swap them in and out of the game, before travelling). If you can't get through tomb 5 without an item from tomb 3, but that item was acquired by a different household and tombs don't reset, you were stuck.
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