I'm curious to know, as each pack has a focus on Islands and Beach activities, but they all focus on very different things!
Bon Voyage's main focus in beachside activities, and the experience of travelling and being on Vacation.
(I know there are two other locations, but most new gameplay comes from Twikkii Island)
Island Paradise kind of flips that and focus' on what it is like living in a tourist destination.
& Island Living focuses more on living on the Islands, Island Culture and the world is inspired by less touristy Tropical life, and more Residential living, by giving us several ways to earn cash as well as whole new systems around Odd Jobs etc.
If you need more time to play Island Living, save your vote!
I like the sound of Island Living the best. I don't want to be a tourist, I want to actually experience the natural beauty and island culture and the water there.
It's kind of hard to choose. Especially since Island Paradise had the underwater lots which Island Living doesn't have, they are rabbit holes instead
I think overall I prefer Island Living over Island Paradise.....but I still love Bon Voyage over the two. Bon Voyage had so much gameplay..... ocean swimming, hotels, making castles, sunbathing, secret lots with secret NPC's, vacationing, souvenirs, jewellery, buried treasures, big foot, teleportation, tea sets, spa lots, massage tables....etc. And you could make your own vacation destinations and add them to any neighborhood! Considering that it was released back then in 2007 there's no comparison.
It's kind of hard to choose. Especially since Island Paradise had the underwater lots which Island Living doesn't have, they are rabbit holes instead
I think overall I prefer Island Living over Island Paradise.....but I still love Bon Voyage over the two. Bon Voyage had so much gameplay..... ocean swimming, hotels, making castles, sunbathing, secret lots with secret NPC's, vacationing, souvenirs, jewellery, buried treasures, big foot, teleportation, tea sets, spa lots, massage tables....etc. And you could make your own vacation destinations and add them to any neighborhood! Considering that it was released back then in 2007 there's no comparison.
Bon Voyage is one of the best build expansions, ever in my opinion. I don’t know how they managed their budget, but that pack brings so much that most other Sims 2 EPs feel like Game Packs in comparison.
And compared to World Adventures & the Sims 4 Vacation Packs, Bon Voyage doesn’t compare (although I do love Granite Falls more than Three Lakes).
I guess one of the things that eats up budget nowadays is making the worlds and world design. The Sims 4 especially. I wonder had EA used a terrain based world tool, how things might have changed (eg like Sims 3 CAW). I think a lot of The Sims 4’s budget is spent creating the worlds from scratch.
I’ve always felt Sims 4 Get To Work seemed to offer so much more gameplay (even if people didn’t really click with it) compared to the rest. The other packs often feel like, the more intricate the world, the less broad the gameplay is.
I don’t know, haha. But whoever managed Bon Voyage’s budget was incredible. So much stuff, it even had more gameplay than the spin off Stories games.
As much as I love BV though, I feel like Island Living may surpass slightly. Because Bon Voyage is a Vacation Pack and by default, the game doesn’t play very well on Vacation after a while. It’s good in small doses but without work/life balance, the game gets dull.
I voted for Bon Voyage as it was centered on vacationing and IP comes is second and finally IL last for the reason of not able to expand IL as one could with BV and IP. IP for me was second as it had developmental issues that came about because EA/Maxis could not properly tweak the product but over all it was beautiful and there was house boats and expandability that IL does not possess and also it is mostly exclusive and static lots. Do not get me wrong IL is pretty but I look beyond the eye candy.
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I voted for Bon Voyage as it was centered on vacationing and IP comes is second and finally IL last for the reason of not able to expand IL as one could with BV and IP. IP for me was second as it had developmental issues that came about because EA/Maxis could not properly tweak the product but over all it was beautiful and there was house boats and expandability that IL does not possess and also it is mostly exclusive and static lots.
The static lots in TS4 are a staple, I mean you can't edit the existing worlds or add your own, so I'm not putting that on the EP.
I think that once developers get to update most of the older worlds to allow full swimming in certain beach areas it'll be all good and dandy, and you'll be able to use the Island Living boats and floats there too.
I voted for Bon Voyage as it was centered on vacationing and IP comes is second and finally IL last for the reason of not able to expand IL as one could with BV and IP. IP for me was second as it had developmental issues that came about because EA/Maxis could not properly tweak the product but over all it was beautiful and there was house boats and expandability that IL does not possess and also it is mostly exclusive and static lots.
The static lots in TS4 are a staple, I mean you can't edit the existing worlds or add your own.
I think that once developers get to update most of the older worlds to allow full swimming in certain beach areas it'll be all good and dandy, and you'll be able to use the Island Living boats and floats there too.
As far as boats and floats goes that is speculation and if it does show up that is good, again having static lots and neighborhood for that reason alone I chose IL as last also for exclusivness which is not an plus for me. Being that the Neighborhoods/Lots are staple does not mean I have to like it.
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Obviously I have yet to play IL but it does tick boxes of what I wanted from an island themed EP more than the others did. But as a quick review of the others and why they weren't no.1.
Bon Voyage
It was a good pack for a holiday but I hardly went on holidays so I didn't often use it. Also I don't remember enjoying the tropical destination all that much my favourite destination was actually Japan (or whatever they called it).
Island Paradise
This was fairly easy for IL to win because all it needs to do is work. IP was the first game I followed up to it's release and really got me into the forums. When I played it I was just bummed out with how poorly it ran. I also got bored very quickly as it's too much of a destination type world that having a sim live thier lives there was kinda difficult and just got annoying after a while. I was also upset about the hotels being mostly a rabbit hole. For me the pack was tied to the world and as I couldn't play the world due to lag and crashing it became mostly just a useless pack.
IL also has great looking content so yeah it wins mostly by default.
Obviously I have yet to play IL but it does tick boxes of what I wanted from an island themed EP more than the others did. But as a quick review of the others and why they weren't no.1.
Bon Voyage
It was a good pack for a holiday but I hardly went on holidays so I didn't often use it. Also I don't remember enjoying the tropical destination all that much my favourite destination was actually Japan (or whatever they called it).
Island Paradise
This was fairly easy for IL to win because all it needs to do is work. IP was the first game I followed up to it's release and really got me into the forums. When I played it I was just bummed out with how poorly it ran. I also got bored very quickly as it's too much of a destination type world that having a sim live thier lives there was kinda difficult and just got annoying after a while. I was also upset about the hotels being mostly a rabbit hole. For me the pack was tied to the world and as I couldn't play the world due to lag and crashing it became mostly just a useless pack.
IL also has great looking content so yeah it wins mostly by default.
Island Living. Bon Voyage was fun; but also a bit limiting and more a vacation world. Island Paradise brought in new ideas with a huge world but was really laggy which caused so many problems and found the sims themselves to be so boring and stiff unlike Sims 2 and 4 as well as as single files being really bloated.
Island Living seemed to take some ideas and expanded on them. Not as limiting as Sims 2 or laggy as Sims 3. Improved on the mermaids and focuses on a culture and living and being a part of it, not just visiting or acting like a tourist. It brought in some new ideas as well such as active volcanoes, the elemental and how sims impact the environment overall.
I think I'm going to get the most use out of IL - strictly from an island paradise perspective. Bon Voyage will always have a place in my heart, but honestly, once you went on vacation to Twikki Island, you were done lol.
Obviously I have yet to play IL but it does tick boxes of what I wanted from an island themed EP more than the others did. But as a quick review of the others and why they weren't no.1.
Bon Voyage
It was a good pack for a holiday but I hardly went on holidays so I didn't often use it. Also I don't remember enjoying the tropical destination all that much my favourite destination was actually Japan (or whatever they called it).
Island Paradise
This was fairly easy for IL to win because all it needs to do is work. IP was the first game I followed up to it's release and really got me into the forums. When I played it I was just bummed out with how poorly it ran. I also got bored very quickly as it's too much of a destination type world that having a sim live thier lives there was kinda difficult and just got annoying after a while. I was also upset about the hotels being mostly a rabbit hole. For me the pack was tied to the world and as I couldn't play the world due to lag and crashing it became mostly just a useless pack.
IL also has great looking content so yeah it wins mostly by default.
IP is probably the most broken pack in existence.
Island Paradise was super broken. That world was a hell, so many routing errors......I'm so amazed at how Island Living works. And here we were all telling ourselves how limited the engine was. Sims can finally ride on jet skis, and swim on open water! It's so cool. And the animations and visuals are off the charts.
I don't really think it's fair for me to vote now, because I'm still in the honeymoon phase for Island Living, and I haven't even tried most of it yet
Bon Voyage doesn't really compare because the island destination is only 1 of 3 vacation spots, so the focus isn't solely on it. And to be fair, it did pioneer a lot of things like beach swimming and sunbathing
Don't manhandle the urchin. He's not for sale. FIND YOUR OWN! - Xenon the Antiquarian, Dragon Age II
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
Island Paradise, and I say this as someone whose lease favorite Sims game is TS3. I just absolutely loved houseboats in that game. I had a save that I played more than 100 Sims weeks where the main family lived on a houseboat the whole time.
Bon Voyage is by far the worst. Sorry but all three vacation worlds are just your typical TS2 worlds made out of simple templates. They look absolutely nothing special. Beyond the basic beach activities and a few other things like massages and dances, this pack has very little to offer.
I would love to pick Island Paradise, but sadly it's barely even functional. I don't want to vote yet because I'm still experiencing island living, so I'm going to hold my thoughts. Definitely not Bon Voyage though lol. It was great but Island Paradise was game changing for it's time, so many firsts in the sims series.
Island living has improved on some of those areas, but I've noticed drawbacks in others.
Example, mermaids can't scuba dive? What the heck. Mermaids need to buy scuba equipment to dive for treasure/shells?
I just got into it (played a couple of hours last night before heading off to bed), but it has become my favorite, although TS2's version would be a very close second. Don't even get me started on TS3, on how bad the lag is with that version.
Mine is easy. I didn't utilize the vacation island in Bon Voyage much. Didn't play Sims 3 for long so never bought or played Island Paradise.
I'm loving this one for Sims 4... and my sims can live here.
I can't rate it if I have not played it - but I do think they all have their good and bad sides depending on what the player playing is looking for.
For instance i love the thought of conservation and marine biology and all I am reading and seeing in the new pack. I am all about saving the only planet we have - so using it in a game in a good way I am happy about. But each of the other Island Sims games had their pluses and minuses too. If I was all about vacations -well Sims 2 was so enjoyable and featured honeymoons. Loved that. Was so much like going on Vacation.
Sims 3 was resorts but also island living but was to me more business side of vacations. I was not really into running resorts - did not care for the had to have buildings part or fighting roaches or any of that thing - but did love living and diving and having all the water sports, activities, and houseboats.
I do feel this new one will be more fitting for me - as I am not party centrallized kind of person and care deeply for people, animals, the earth - etc. I am not one who is big on destroying our planet so it is really right up my alley and I may be biased as far as resort living goes - but I could see Romantic get a ways for honey mooning and non - resort living. That is me. I also like the fact there appears to be respect for the native inhabitant of this place - I respect that. But as i said I am not into the real 🐸🐸🐸🐸 kind of thing with no regard to the histories and loving our world. This pack will probably reign higher in my like rating because of the thought and respect it brings to me the person and maybe not so much to me the player. LOL. I see both sides of the equation - but this pack so far represents me more than the others. I can understand those who do not think like me though and respect that as well.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Island Paradise, and I say this as someone whose lease favorite Sims game is TS3. I just absolutely loved houseboats in that game. I had a save that I played more than 100 Sims weeks where the main family lived on a houseboat the whole time.
Bon Voyage is by far the worst. Sorry but all three vacation worlds are just your typical TS2 worlds made out of simple templates. They look absolutely nothing special. Beyond the basic beach activities and a few other things like massages and dances, this pack has very little to offer.
But hey they were cute and had their little fun sides too to be fair. Honeymoon was the best of those for me. But this new one - is me through and through.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
@Writin_Reg I agree! That's what I really like about this pack too! The care the sims develop for their environment. I love some of the options I saw in the stream regarding how what they choose in terms of global conservation can affect the entire sims world. I'm going to have a lot of fun with that and may even finally delve in to the politician career because of it!
I really love that it's not a destination world. That you're really living there at all times, seeing the impact on environment, that the successfull kava party moodlet says you're integrating the community. I love how quiet and non-touristy it is.
People whining it isn't a vacation world are missing the point and I'm glad devs didn't treat it as pretty scenery to consume and spit back up before going back to "normal" life.
Living full time on an island myself, it feels good.
Comments
I think overall I prefer Island Living over Island Paradise.....but I still love Bon Voyage over the two. Bon Voyage had so much gameplay..... ocean swimming, hotels, making castles, sunbathing, secret lots with secret NPC's, vacationing, souvenirs, jewellery, buried treasures, big foot, teleportation, tea sets, spa lots, massage tables....etc. And you could make your own vacation destinations and add them to any neighborhood! Considering that it was released back then in 2007 there's no comparison.
Island Paradise was okay and I liked my sims living on houseboats, but it was so glitchy (even with NRASS mods)
I have to wait and see how Island Living plays out, but I love the look of the world and the idea of being more involved in the island care.
Bon Voyage is one of the best build expansions, ever in my opinion. I don’t know how they managed their budget, but that pack brings so much that most other Sims 2 EPs feel like Game Packs in comparison.
And compared to World Adventures & the Sims 4 Vacation Packs, Bon Voyage doesn’t compare (although I do love Granite Falls more than Three Lakes).
I guess one of the things that eats up budget nowadays is making the worlds and world design. The Sims 4 especially. I wonder had EA used a terrain based world tool, how things might have changed (eg like Sims 3 CAW). I think a lot of The Sims 4’s budget is spent creating the worlds from scratch.
I’ve always felt Sims 4 Get To Work seemed to offer so much more gameplay (even if people didn’t really click with it) compared to the rest. The other packs often feel like, the more intricate the world, the less broad the gameplay is.
I don’t know, haha. But whoever managed Bon Voyage’s budget was incredible. So much stuff, it even had more gameplay than the spin off Stories games.
As much as I love BV though, I feel like Island Living may surpass slightly. Because Bon Voyage is a Vacation Pack and by default, the game doesn’t play very well on Vacation after a while. It’s good in small doses but without work/life balance, the game gets dull.
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The static lots in TS4 are a staple, I mean you can't edit the existing worlds or add your own, so I'm not putting that on the EP.
I think that once developers get to update most of the older worlds to allow full swimming in certain beach areas it'll be all good and dandy, and you'll be able to use the Island Living boats and floats there too.
As far as boats and floats goes that is speculation and if it does show up that is good, again having static lots and neighborhood for that reason alone I chose IL as last also for exclusivness which is not an plus for me. Being that the Neighborhoods/Lots are staple does not mean I have to like it.
Bon Voyage
It was a good pack for a holiday but I hardly went on holidays so I didn't often use it. Also I don't remember enjoying the tropical destination all that much my favourite destination was actually Japan (or whatever they called it).
Island Paradise
This was fairly easy for IL to win because all it needs to do is work. IP was the first game I followed up to it's release and really got me into the forums. When I played it I was just bummed out with how poorly it ran. I also got bored very quickly as it's too much of a destination type world that having a sim live thier lives there was kinda difficult and just got annoying after a while. I was also upset about the hotels being mostly a rabbit hole. For me the pack was tied to the world and as I couldn't play the world due to lag and crashing it became mostly just a useless pack.
IL also has great looking content so yeah it wins mostly by default.
IP is probably the most broken pack in existence.
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Island Living seemed to take some ideas and expanded on them. Not as limiting as Sims 2 or laggy as Sims 3. Improved on the mermaids and focuses on a culture and living and being a part of it, not just visiting or acting like a tourist. It brought in some new ideas as well such as active volcanoes, the elemental and how sims impact the environment overall.
Lets make this a reality!
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Island Paradise was super broken. That world was a hell, so many routing errors......I'm so amazed at how Island Living works. And here we were all telling ourselves how limited the engine was. Sims can finally ride on jet skis, and swim on open water! It's so cool. And the animations and visuals are off the charts.
Bon Voyage doesn't really compare because the island destination is only 1 of 3 vacation spots, so the focus isn't solely on it. And to be fair, it did pioneer a lot of things like beach swimming and sunbathing
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
Bon Voyage is by far the worst. Sorry but all three vacation worlds are just your typical TS2 worlds made out of simple templates. They look absolutely nothing special. Beyond the basic beach activities and a few other things like massages and dances, this pack has very little to offer.
Island living has improved on some of those areas, but I've noticed drawbacks in others.
Example, mermaids can't scuba dive? What the heck. Mermaids need to buy scuba equipment to dive for treasure/shells?
I'm loving this one for Sims 4... and my sims can live here.
For instance i love the thought of conservation and marine biology and all I am reading and seeing in the new pack. I am all about saving the only planet we have - so using it in a game in a good way I am happy about. But each of the other Island Sims games had their pluses and minuses too. If I was all about vacations -well Sims 2 was so enjoyable and featured honeymoons. Loved that. Was so much like going on Vacation.
Sims 3 was resorts but also island living but was to me more business side of vacations. I was not really into running resorts - did not care for the had to have buildings part or fighting roaches or any of that thing - but did love living and diving and having all the water sports, activities, and houseboats.
I do feel this new one will be more fitting for me - as I am not party centrallized kind of person and care deeply for people, animals, the earth - etc. I am not one who is big on destroying our planet so it is really right up my alley and I may be biased as far as resort living goes - but I could see Romantic get a ways for honey mooning and non - resort living. That is me. I also like the fact there appears to be respect for the native inhabitant of this place - I respect that. But as i said I am not into the real 🐸🐸🐸🐸 kind of thing with no regard to the histories and loving our world. This pack will probably reign higher in my like rating because of the thought and respect it brings to me the person and maybe not so much to me the player. LOL. I see both sides of the equation - but this pack so far represents me more than the others. I can understand those who do not think like me though and respect that as well.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
But hey they were cute and had their little fun sides too to be fair. Honeymoon was the best of those for me. But this new one - is me through and through.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
People whining it isn't a vacation world are missing the point and I'm glad devs didn't treat it as pretty scenery to consume and spit back up before going back to "normal" life.
Living full time on an island myself, it feels good.