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    Which expansion pack should I get?

    Lokitty7Lokitty7 Posts: 12 New Member
    edited November 2014 in The Sims 3 General Discussion
    I'm unsure as to which expansion I should get for Christmas. I already have Late Night, Pets, Supernatural, and Seasons. I doubt that I'm going to get Showtime or Into The Future. It would be helpful if you could rank Ambitions, Generations, World Adventures, University, and Island Paradise from 1 to 5 (1 being the best, 5 being the worst) and give a few reasons why.

    Thanks :)
    Post edited by Lokitty7 on

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      DemetriDemetri Posts: 48 Member
      1. Generations
      2. University
      3. Ambitions
      4. World Adventures
      (Never played Island Paradise)
      I LOVE Generations! It was the first expansion I got and is great if you love the family aspect, which I do.
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      KATENESSKATENESS Posts: 3,610 Member
      1. Generations (I mostly play families and this adds so much for toddlers, kids, and teens. And I like a lot of the clothes too. Plus, Prom!)
      2. World Adventures (China is beautiful! And traveling is fun! But sometimes the challenges can be a bit much. I've never fully explored all the tombs in all the destinations.)
      3. Island Paradise (I love the open water! And the houseboats are great too. But the routing in Isla Paradiso is bad, and sims get stuck a lot.)
      4. University (I love all the stuff, clothes, and hair that come with it. But I never really send my sims to Uni. It kind of got boring really quick.)
      5. Ambitions (It adds a bunch of stuff to the game, but it's just not my favorite. The careers get old and the townies that come with Twinbrook are pretty unattractive.)
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      GillieGillie Posts: 1,708 Member
      Generations might seem like a shallow expansion pack, but I loved how they expanded on playing with families. There's a little something for everyone.

      World Adventures is terrible. You have boring fetch quests and even more boring dungeons. Overall, the content isn't that great and forgettable.
      Film Noir Foundation
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      Felicity1169Felicity1169 Posts: 592 Member
      I've only played World Adventures and Generations because I got the bundle pack. They are both okay, Gnerations added a lot of clothes and family interactions which I thought was nice, and world adventures is fun but travelling is a bit annoying. I would suggest getting the bundle rather than both separately though.
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      MamaSimTeeMamaSimTee Posts: 963 Member
      For me:

      1. Generations - loved the added family feel. If you like to play legacy families, Generations is definitely the EP to get.
      2. Ambitions - I like the jobs that came with this one. Plus, silly as it sounds, I kinda dig the laundry thing. I'm old. Just adds realism to me.
      3. World Adventures - I like the adventure, but to be fair in my review, I haven't played any of the quests straight through. (just one of the many reasons why I'm not making the jump to Sims 4)
      4. Island Paradise - get with caution. VERY buggy. House boats are interesting. Resorts meh....this world has severe lag.
      5. University - only because I chose not to get this one. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm old (40's) and have no desire to play the "college experience" You may want to.
      <insert inspiring comment here> :)
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      LaBlue0314LaBlue0314 Posts: 17,436 Member
      I have all the EPs, and of all of them it would be Generations. Granted this does not come with a new town, but for me it add so much that I just don't want to go without.
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      xBob18xBob18 Posts: 7,893 Member
      1. Generations: Family stuff. 'Nuff said.
      2. University: So. Much. Items.
      3. Ambitions: Cool new careers.
      4. Island Paradise: Pools aren't boring anymore.
      5. World Adventures: Goals... What can I say.
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      JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
      Lokitty7 wrote: »
      I'm unsure as to which expansion I should get for Christmas. I already have Late Night, Pets, Supernatural, and Seasons. I doubt that I'm going to get Showtime or Into The Future. It would be helpful if you could rank Ambitions, Generations, World Adventures, University, and Island Paradise from 1 to 5 (1 being the best, 5 being the worst) and give a few reasons why.<br />
      <br />
      Thanks :)
      For me it's:
      1. World Adventures (hours and hours of gameplay in three beautiful worlds)
      2. University (not only going there, which is great, but the features and items attached to it as well)
      3. Ambitions (not all careers but I like stylist and ghost hunter)
      4. Island Paradise (beautiful world, lot of nice gameplay; buggy though and the world is laggy, which is the only reason it's not 3th)
      5. Generations (a collection of animations and I'm not really into that)
      5JZ57S6.png
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      CamillahaCamillaha Posts: 96 Member
      1. Ambitions. The careers! There's so many of them. Registering as self-employd works well for parents who want to stay at home and work when it's convenient. The careers I play the most are fire fighter, inventer and private investigator. I know some think the PI career is too linear and boring but you can always quit a case if it's not what you would have wanted and there's no punishment for dropping an uninteresting case, you can just head over to the police department and get a new case right away or stay at the police station making friends and helping out. I find it funny to make a clichee PI with his ex-wives, trusted informants and regular hangout bar where he/she spends his free time drinking. A lot of the Ambition careers are great for outgoing sims who like to make friends. Stylist and interior design are fun to play. And explosions and simbots smashing things are great for causing chaos. In my present game I made my inventor and his simbot go on a rampage of destruction worth almost 100 000.
      2. Island Paradise. The town is seriously bugged but other than that it's fun to play. Lots of fun outdoor activities and nice objects. Resorts are fun to design but after that I found running them a little bit boring.
      3. World Adventures. The worlds look nice. Nectar making and photography are also nice. Too bad the travel system has always been unpredictable for me.
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      GREENEYAGREENEYA Posts: 7,796 Member
      edited November 2014
      1. World Adventures ( great expansion, with huge amount of new content, and 3 new worlds )
      2. Island Paradise ( I like mermaids and that tropical island life gameplay )
      3. University life ( I like all new plants for gardenings, Plantsims and new skills )
      4. Ambitions ( I like new skill and Simbots )
      5. Generations ( My least favorite TS3 expansion, really small expansion, it is more an stuff pack than expansion )

      You should reconsider Into The Future and Showtime.

      Into The Future is really fun expansion, with really fun gameplay. New objects are great. Clothing store is in that expansion. New skills are great.

      Showtime has great objects and nice new world ''Starlight shores'' Also Genies are fun.
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      simsalways1simsalways1 Posts: 31 Member
      edited November 2014
      1. University Life (you basically live the college life. I loved the new skills, parties, classes, social networking, social groups, gardening, plantsim...)

      2. Ambitions (I really enjoyed being able to play my sims on the job.)

      3. Generations (I loved the field trips, prom, midlife crisis, new woohooing areas, new lifetime rewards, daycare career...)

      4. World Adventures (This expansion is too scripted for me. You just get tasks while your on vacation. I remember really liking the martial arts skill though.)

      I never played Island Paradise.
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      pinkishpinkish Posts: 693 Member
      Ambitions... I liked actually going out and doing the jobs, but without an open world I don't see it being much fun.
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      ChimarkChimark Posts: 2,166 Member
      I would say Ambitions, I love the Fireman and Doctor careers. The look on the Sim's faces when they get vaccinated is priceless. But you have to put a lot of work into the careers. So if your style of game play is to send your Sim to work and then concentrate on your other Sims (if any), then don't bother. I agree the town with Ambitions is nothing special.

      Generations is fun as it adds the Daycare Career which is also involved. It's challenging and annoying all at the same time. Sims are so inconsiderate about picking up and dropping off their kids.

      University adds a lot of stuff, even if you never go to Uni. So if you can get it for less then $10 (I did) then grab it. You will like the extra stuff. It's fun to play but realize the key is that you have to put in minimal amount of study time and let the Sims have fun at Uni. I kept making my Sim study too much and he'd stress and fail his tests, till I figured this out.

      Island Paradise is very laggy. If you do get this, you will have to find and delete the Scott Family. This cleared up about 90% of the problems I had with the world Isla Paradiso. The Scott Family is glitched.

      And don't count out Showtime. It's not much but you can often get it for less than $5.00USD and I love the world that came with it. That alone is worth $5.00. So if it's cheap grab it.
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      5782341b77vl5782341b77vl Posts: 9,149 Member
      edited November 2014
      From what I understand, the Scott houseboat isn't docked that causes the lag. From what I've read when you start your game, play the Scott family first and dock their boat. It should clear the lagging up. Save game and switch over to YOUR sims. Play as normal and enjoy. :^)

      EDIT: I'd hold off deleting, unless the docking of the Scott's boat doesn't help the lag.
      ...AND WASH YOUR DING-DANG HANDS!
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      Lokitty7Lokitty7 Posts: 12 New Member
      edited November 2014
      Is this the only problem with Island Paradise?
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      ChimarkChimark Posts: 2,166 Member
      I could only only get rid of the lag by totally getting rid of the Scotts, but that could just be me.

      I've not encountered any other problems with IP. If you're a builder it's fun because you can create your own dive lots

      See here for details on how to do this:
      http://simsvip.com/game-guides/sims-3-island-paradise/creating-dive-lots/

      The only other minor annoyance is you can't turn the mermaids off, (Like other life states: Vampires, Fairies, Witches etc) unless you have a mod. I see a lot of mermaid (through their leg scales) pop up in other worlds.

      It's got a lot of nice interactions, owning a hotel is a fun "mini-game" of sorts, and it's always fun when your Sim is a lifeguard and people fake sick to get a handsome Sim to give him/her CPR. Or when your lifeguard Sim gets three drowning Sims and can only rescue two of them and the third one gets annoyed and somehow manages to get out of the water (they always do actually) and tells off your lifeguard Sim and slap him/her.

      The world is big so what I like to do is to put LLAMA stations all over before I start (they are like mini subways that came with Supernatural EP) or simply cheat and give your Sim a car with a speed of 9 or 10.
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      Lokitty7Lokitty7 Posts: 12 New Member
      Okay, thanks. :smile: I did hear, however, that Island Paradise got boring easily/you run out of new things to do quickly?
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      alyssasim87alyssasim87 Posts: 1,277 Member
      I only have generations and ambitions and I love them both but I love family gameplay so I picked generations 1st and still like it better.
      my origin id is simkitten87

      Im a simmer forever <3
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      CockapooCockapoo Posts: 27 New Member
      I think you should get World Adventures. I own every single Sims game, and had owned all of the Sim City series as well. I had high anticipation because I am used to the massive amounts of new things we got with the Sims 1 & Sims 2 expansions, which were offered at much lower costs. However, do not let this deter you. While you may not get a ton of new items, you do get adventure as promised. The pros:
      1. You do get to travel, and there are goals when you do so. I didn't care for the way the Sims 2: Bon Voyage, didn't really give you a goal. It was go to a new place, relax, stay for a huge amount of time and leave. World Adventures gives you goals, while allowing you to visit various places if you would like. And in time you can buy a vacation home and spend more time there. You have to build up your "visa" to have stays longer than 3 days in each location, and you do this by completing adventures. I had a great time wandering around the maze like tombs, and avoiding torching myself.
      2. There are indeed a few more items, and they have country themes. In the past few games we have really only had Asian oriented items; I love decorating the house with flaming chandeliers like the ones seen in the tombs.
      3. I have not found all of the new social interactions, but so far there have been about three.
      4. Basements! Yes you heard right, you can actually have basements to your house now; not only that but you can build "tombs" under your home.
      5. A few new traits and music tastes.
      6. Your sim, when they learn a new song, may come home singing- which I find very cute.
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      ChimarkChimark Posts: 2,166 Member
      Lokitty7 wrote: »
      Okay, thanks. :smile: I did hear, however, that Island Paradise got boring easily/you run out of new things to do quickly?

      I didn't run out of things that quick. Maybe it took me a lot longer to master them? LOL

      Or maybe I played it more. Like with Ambitions I never got the hang of the architecture career as those picky Sims hate everything I do.
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      KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,923 Member
      Lokitty7 wrote: »
      Is this the only problem with Island Paradise?

      no. There a lot of other routing issues due to sloppy building by whoever built the lots for the world. Ella Charmed has made a fixed version of the world. You can find it at the Mod the Sims site.

      I find I can play Island Paradise if I have NRAAS mods such as Overwatch to reset stuck Sims for me whenever they get stuck. This stops them causing lag. If you find a particular Sim is constantly being reset you can usually find their home and find all the different routing issues around the lot and fix them. Once you've found and fixed them all you won't have that Sim getting stuck again on that lot.

      see the Island Paradise Bug Thread in the Island Paradise forum for more info on other causes of lag in that world.

      S.jpg

      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
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