To me these packs are essential for deeper, richicher, and fun game play.
The Sims 3
Seasons (Weather adds realism)
Generations ( Kids, teens, and family play are deepen.Generations is my favorite pack
Pets (More animals)
Sims 3 late night (Late night added a more mature setting.They are night clubs, bars, bands,celebrate system, club clothes,butter, party items, and vampires)
Ambitions (This add more careers, and active professions.)
Sims 4 Seasons. (Of all the pack 'ss Sims 4 needed it was this one. Seasons added weather and holidays. With also a lot of family play.)
Sims 4 Parenthood. (Adds a more depth family system)
Sims 4 Dine out (Adds restaurants )
Supernatural stuff
Sims 3 The sims 3 supernatural These add the ability to make creatures in create of sim
Sims 3 Grim door
Sims 3 crystsll ball
Sims 4
Sims 4 Vampires, and Realm of magic. Why sims 4 lack supernatural.These packs are still well rounded, and needed for a more fantasy play.I can't wait to see fairies or werewolves.
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Comments
I agree with your choices for 4 too. Dine out is a bit buggy for me but I still find it's worth it because I use that BB and CAS all the time. The only thing I'd add to TS4 is Toddler stuff. It does add some extra bits for your toddlers to play with.
Yah it's a bit buggy , but it adds more venue for your sims to go to.Also you can create, and manage your own restaurant.The only complaint is well I wish we could been chefs as well..
Sims 3 Venue store content I recommend.
World of Wonder venue.This venue adds merry go-arounds, whack a mole,cotten candy, and popcorn.
The indulgent bakery.Its a bakery, that adds recipes, you can run a bakery yourself.Create new ones as well.
Sims 3 bistro Can go out to eat, and make your restaurant.Not as good as two or four.Still it's acceptable
Sims 3 Cinema It adds a movie theater lot.
I do recommend to get these things on sale by the daily deal.Or when sims points are half off.Or you have lot of extra money.These are expensive.
I'm guessing we couldn't be chefs because of the culinary career branch.
I didn't know that the bakery added recipes so now I'll think I'll watch for a sale for that!
Yes it adds coberlers, pies, bread, cookies.
I've tried the club system to do a club with other random sims and i didn't like at all so i never used it again. But latelly ive been using it to have family moments all together. Simple things like a dinner, watching a movie... and im loving it now.
After browsing this forum and other various discussion of sims a bit, I've found there's 3 main play styles. There's more than this, but these are the 3 most common I see, so I'll base them around these; Family play, Young Adult/Adult play and Whacky/Occult play. I've tried to strip this down to what I feel are the very essentials. This means that even if you fit into one these 3 categories, you may like a pack not listed under the respective category.
Essential packs for Family Play:
The Sims 2
-Freetime
-Seasons
-Pets
-Bon Voyage
-University
The Sims 3
-Generations
-Pets
-University Life
-Seasons
The Sims 4
-Get Together (don't like it, but it also doesn't suit my playstyle)
-Cats & Dogs
-Seasons
-Parenthood
Essential packs for Young Adult & Adult play:
The Sims 2
-Freetime
-University
-Nightlife
-Apartment Life
The Sims 3
-Ambitions
-Late Night
-Seasons
-University Life
The Sims 4
-Get to Work
-Get Together
-City Living
-Seasons
-Discover University
-Dine Out
Essential packs for Whacky/Occult Play:
This is Sims 2's weak point. I can't really recommend The Sims 2 to occult players, all of them are badly implemented, except...
-Apartment Life
The Sims 3
-Supernatural
-Into the Future
The Sims 4
-Vampires
-Strangerville
-Realm of Magic
Lastly, you have what I'm calling "niche packs", that only fulfill a specific niche. They're good, but if you have no interest in that specific theme or playstyle, they're not going to be for you:
The Sims 2
-Open for Business
The Sims 3
-World Adventures
-Showtime
The Sims 4:
-Island Living
-Get Famous
-Jungle Adventure
Anything I didn't mention throughout this post, I think is a bad pack for any play type, and just not worth buying.
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.