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How would you rank the Sims 3 expansions?
Onverser
Posts: 3,364 Member
Thought this would be an interesting discussion to see how opinions differ, so how would you rank the Sims 3 expansions against each other?
For reference the 11 expansions are:
For the poll, pick your favorite and rank the others in the comments!
(sorry if it's pets they only allow 10 options on a poll and there's 11 packs
)
For reference the 11 expansions are:
- The Sims 3: World Adventures
- The Sims 3: Ambitions
- The Sims 3: Late Night
- The Sims 3: Generations
- The Sims 3: Pets
- The Sims 3: Showtime
- The Sims 3: Supernatural
- The Sims 3: Seasons
- The Sims 3: University Life
- The Sims 3: Island Paradise
- The Sims 3: Into the Future
For the poll, pick your favorite and rank the others in the comments!
(sorry if it's pets they only allow 10 options on a poll and there's 11 packs
) How would you rank the Sims 3 expansions? 77 votes
World Adventures
11%
9 votes
Ambitions
9%
7 votes
Late Night
12%
10 votes
Generations
16%
13 votes
Showtime
0%
Supernatural
14%
11 votes
Seasons
22%
17 votes
University Life
1%
1 vote
Island Paradise
9%
7 votes
Into the Future
2%
2 votes
3
Comments
I love Into The Future, I've played with it so many times and I feel very nostalgic around it because I started playing 3 that year and it was the only pack I bought when it was new
I love islands and anything tropical so this pack will always be a win for me, and it's fun to play with as well. I've used Isla Paradiso a lot.
I love quest and story based gameplay so I find this really fun to play with and achieve all the tasks. + the tombs are fun
The world is one of my favorites in the game, I love the hollywood style and I enjoy the careers that came with it.
I love active careers and I love how much variety this pack adds.
I love having occults in my game
This pack adds a lot of useful things I like like celebrities, functional bars and apartments. Not a massive fan of the world though hence the low ranking
It's a good pack but I enjoy permanent summer so it's not really vital for me. Love the seasonal festivals though.
Meh. I don't play with pets in a big way.
Never played with it properly, not very interesting for me. The roommate system is a must for me and I like the rebel/geek/etc type options.
Not interested in family gameplay so this pack isn't much use for me. Never bought it and I'm not bothered about that.
I just like visiting even to vacation and collect bugs or fish set up a tent in the shop areas and terrorize the locals with flasks of bees and large and in charge potions.So much to do without setting foot on a adventure or in a temple or pyramid
#2 Late Night
#3 Showtime
#4 Supernatural
#5 Ambitions
#6 Into The Future
#7 Island Paradise
#8 University Life
#9 Seasons
#10 Pets
#11 Generations
2. Late Night - Bridgeport. Enough said.
3. Ambitions - The new careers are something that are a must in my game now, and some of the new skills are really fun to play with.
The others are all pretty equal to me, I can’t really say which I like more but I know I couldn’t play without any of them, lol.
2. World Adventures
3. Pets
4. Supernatural
5. University Life
6. Late Night
7. Seasons
8. Showtime
9. Generations
10. Island Paradise (sorry your EP should actually be playable out of the box! At least a little bit!)
I haven't played much with Into the Future though unless I run into giant performance issues I'd currently rank it pretty high for fun and content, probably around Late Night.
outrun / blog / tunglr
Sorry, off topic, I apologize, and I am not talking sarcasm way, as Parenthood still is the only pack current version I do not have or ever will have.
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
2. Late Night-Bridgeport
3. Ambitions-Inventor
4. Into the Future-Time Porter
5. Seasons-Festivals
6. World Adventure-Egypt
7. Showtime-Starlight Shores with Genies
8. Pets-Horses & Western
9. Generations-Family Milestones & many Family Members
10. University-Meh
1. Late Night
2. World Adventure
3. Island Paradise
4. Super Natural
5. Generations
6. Seasons
7. University
8. Ambitions
9. Pets
10. Into the Future
11. Show Time
Generations is one of those packs that was a good idea but IMO underwhelmed me in TS3 due to annoying, judgmental mechanics like uncancellable autonomous scolding and reliance on rabbitholes. Though people are tired of my "TS4 Parenthood is just better Generations for half the price" takes too so I won't.
outrun / blog / tunglr
1. Generations. Legacies are my favorite way to play Sims 3, so I love everything that came with this pack and use all of it quite often (except the imaginary friends,cause they get in the way, but even then I’ve still brought a couple to life).
2. Seasons. To be honest, this is such a close second that it virtually ties with Generations. I love all the activities each season comes with and the outer clothing it came with is super cute. As family player my game isn’t complete without it.
3. Supernatural . I love playing with the occults, the potter plants are all kinds of useful and Moonlight Falls is one of my favorite worlds .
4. Ambitions and Pets tie for me. I love the features they come with, especially the ability to be self-employed. Not to mention the pets themselves are cute( especially the cats and dogs) . The only thing that doesn’t place it higher is that I rarely use the worlds these two packs come with and I’m not a fan of the horses; they are cute and everything just a little high maintenance
5. World Adventure. Traveling is extremely fun to do every now especially for Sim honeymoons and I love some of the traits the pack comes with, however i don’t actually raid the tombs and such unless I created a sim specifically to do that, mostly cause completing a tomb takes too much time.
6. Showtime. The singer career is a fun one to do sometimes, I love genies , and the pack comes with some great CAS items, I just don’t use this pack that often cause it doesn’t go with my preferred play style very well. Not to mention Starlight Shores doesn’t play very smoothly on my laptop.
7. Late Night. Fame doesn’t interest me nor does the band career and Bridgeport doesn’t work on my computer very well. However I do use the CAS times quite often as well as the Vampire occult.
8. Island Paradise. The CAS items are super cute and I use them often, but otherwise I don’t use the features from this pack very often.
9. University. Once more I like the CAS items, but I find actually going to college tedious and repetitive, so I really don’t do it that often.
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I change all the boathouses’ lot type to ‘no visitors allowed’, then almost of lags are gone. No problem playing in Isla Paradiso. Also you can live in a boathouse as well. The lagging issue is caused by the inactive sims living in the boathouse. There’s no problem with the active family live in the boathouse.
I don't know what I'd do without Bridgeport and all my hottie vamp boys, honestly. Even if I de-vamp them every time.
2. Seasons
The addition of holidays and seasons is just too strong. The game wouldn't feel right without them.
3. Generations
I just think the family interaction additions are fantastic.
4. Ambitions
Active careers are always super fun. I especially adore the stylist profession.
5. Showtime
Similarly to Ambitions, I appreciate even more active careers. Though my sims have only ever really been singers.
6. World Adventures
Even though this type of expansion feels more Indiana Jones-y, it still provides the base for mods to work from to make vacations enjoyable. That, and the addition of tourists is pretty cute. Even if they are all pudding-faced, doo-doo haired monsters.
7. University Life
University Life is down this far purely because EA should've thought about how weird it is for your kid's kid to go to school with a bunch of elderly people who their grandma graduated with years ago.
8. Island Paradise
I like the resort system, but I don't really use a lot of this expansion's features otherwise.
9. Pets
To be honest, my sims rarely have pets...though perhaps for the silliest reason possible - I feel bad about not having much time to give my virtual pets attention.
10. Supernatural
I like some of the clothes, but I really get almost no use out of having this expansion installed.
11. Into the Future
I like this one hair that it gives guy sims and that's it. Otherwise, another case of an expansion I get pretty much no use out of having installed.
1. Generations
2. Late Night
3. Super Natural
4. Island Paradise
5. Seasons
6. Ambitions
7. Into the Future
8. Show Time
9. World Adventure
10. University
University and World Adventure are a total no for me. Can't take children or pets with you? That sounds like the sim version of hell.
2- Ambitions
3- Pets
4- Seasons
5- Showtime
6- Supernaturals
7- University Life
8- Into The Future
9- Late Night
10- Island Paradise
11- Generations - Although it has beautiful objects, this expansion has no use for me. I prefer a more 'organic' line of natural progression for my simulations. Forced events such as: Driving Lessons, Prom, Mid-Life Crisis and other events are more of a time-consuming hindrance to my game-play (and my Sim's development) than a positive addition.
So many adorable details, like cats fishing and actually bringing sims their catch (sometimes) or my horse raiding the neighbor's garden (with my sim still sitting on it).
2. Ambitions
I can't say no to freelance (or at least flexible shedule) careers or to more crafting options, and also love the world a lot.
3. World Adventures
Takes much work to make into a vacation world and the tomb gameplay is about the opposite of my freeform playstyle. But on the other hand nectar making, martial arts and photography are just too good, so even though this is my least liked pack, I in no way dislike it.
I only have these three packs, so the rest of the ratings are "educated guesses":
4. Island Paradise (interested in buying sometime)
5. Into the Future (interested in buying sometime)
6. Supernatural
7. Showtime
8. Seasons
9. Late Night
10. University Life
11. Generations
The reason why Late night and showtime are below of my list is that night life or city's entertainment was never my favorite.
1. Generations
2. Late Night
3. Island Paradise
4. Ambitions
5. World Adventures
6. Seasons
7. Pets
8. University Life
9. Showtime
10. Supernatural
11. Into the future
1. Seasons - I know it doesn't do anything much other than add weather and festivals, but I can't play a single game without having Seasons in the game or it just doesn't feel realistic.
2. Supernatural - I play a lot with occults (werewolves) or I'd have to be changing the Options.ini in terms of lifespan every single time I played. Might explore witches too...
3. Ambitions - just have to have my det packs and I love the self-employment aspect of it too.
4. Pets - can't play without having a dog, it's like a built in wealth-cheat.
5. University Life - easily one of the best EPs that I've had. I can send my sims to University for two in-game weeks and have them party or be studious.
6. World Adventures - I use these worlds for holidays for my sims; barely use the tomb exploration - but it's something I might get into it.
7. Into the Future - Allows me to use some of the cool stuff that the pack has (especially if I'm playing an apocalypse legacy)
8. Generations - Legacies are long for me so I tend to prefer narrative stories rather than playing a legacy the way that the game sets it up.
9. Island Paradise - the world may be bugged but it has some pretty nice add-ons. I like the sharks and the diving.
10. Late Night - This was a ho-hum pack for me, other than the bars and the piano (the only other instrument I use often is the violin (which is a store item)
11. Showtime - Asides from the Katy Perry marketing tie-in, I have absolutely no interest in the careers, The only thing that interested me in the pack was the banana tree; the plantable. That's right, I got a $20 expansion pack for ONE plantable.
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
World Adventures
Late Night
University
Island Paradise
Into the Future
Supernatural
Seasons
Generations
Showtime
Pets
I have to add that I rarely play the game the way it wants to go.
Most Expansion Packs are precisely that, and nothing more than more opportunities to create my own game and storylines.
On Pets ... A lot of Potential and some really neat options and items.
However ... Oddly enough, it's a game breaker for my computer and operating system.
My game runs well and lightning fast, but I load the Pets Pack and it will start occasionally crashing to desktop.
Happy Simming!
.
World Adventures - Love the items, and the tombs and all the worlds.
Ambitions - Self employed careers, I love that.
Late Night - Awesome world + vampires and clubs.
University Life - I like the items that came with this one, and the fact that everyone can go to uni not just a certain age bracket.
Seasons - I like the weather, it makes the game more interesting even on just a visual level.
Island Paradise - For this, and ITF they had an awesome idea , but the execution was a bit... urgh. I like them though because they're different and imaginative.
Into the Future - Above.
Showtime - I never bought this pack on principle because of Simport, but I was given it as a gift. Over these years I've mellowed toward it and I love the world when all the career stuff is stripped out of it.
Pets - I am an animal lover in real space, but I mod all animals out of my sims game except minor pets. They make the game a lag-fest otherwise.
Generations - Pfft shouldn't even be called an EP. It's basically a SP with a set of movie tools no one ever seems to remember to use half the time.
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Devolution of Sims - a once customisable open world sandbox which has become a DLC Party catalog in a shoebox
I ♡ Pudding
2. Island Paradise - I grew up in a beach town and so the stuff in this pack just feels like "home" to me. It's a shame that the world is so broken but luckily with fixes it is playable. I get incredibly homesick now that I live out in the country but this pack helps ease that.
3. Ambitions - I love, love, love all of the careers and being able to play careers that aren't in a rabbithole.
4. Generations - I am a big fan of family gameplay and the interactions and fun things this adds to my game is a must!
5. World Adventures - I love adventuring and exploring!
6. Showtime - My absolute favorite career in this entire game is the Acrobat career. I love the stuff in this pack as well!
7. Late Night - I love the different venues and places to go this pack brought to the game. I love the clothes especially.
8. University Life - I love the stuff and extra traits.
9. Into The Future - Being able to travel to the future and the bot building stuff is fun.
10. Seasons - I like the holidays, otherwise, meh. I never use any of the weather, it's always sunshiny in my sims' world!
11. Pets - this pack absolutely borks my game to unplayable which is a shame because when I could manage to get it to work, horses were super fun! I haven't used it in years, though.
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Okay, I voted for Island Paradise as number one but after reading other's comments I realize that I made a mistake. In reality it's a tie for me between Generations and Seasons. Both are so worked into my gameplay that I just take them for granted, fail to see them as expansions, the old "can't see the forest through the trees" syndrome.
But if I had to choose between the two, and if I could vote again, I would vote:
1. Seasons (weather is such a character, to large to leave out, oh how I love to see my sims take to the lounge chairs on Leisure Day!)
2. Generations- I get so attached to my sims and love to see them live a long life, and fight over the rockers
3. Island Paradise- spent my childhood just a a couple blocks away from the ocean... love the vibe, spend a lot a time doing the Midnight Sun challenge (houseboat version.)
4. Pets -I don't have pets in the household but maybe 20% of the time, but I enjoy seeing them in town.... although Appaloosa Plains causes a lot of lag for my computer.
5. Supernatural- although I have spent so few hours playing any supernatural, and have them turned off in game, but I do imagine I would really like supernatural a lot once I got rolling with it and I look forward to really exploring the "realm" one day. Soon, I hope.
6. Ambitions
7. Into the Future- although I've never been, even though I've owned the expansion for years, have been abducted, got pregnant, raised alien children, but have not dared to enter the portal.
8. University Life - been there a few times, seems like there's more fun to be had.
9. Late Night- venues and clothes
10. Showtime- want to form more bands, but so far not that into the solo, diva, thing.
11. World Adventures -like the worlds but not the adventures, except for Egypt and the tombs and mum, mum, mummies.
As for the rest, I can't really rank them. I bought a bunch of expansion packs when they were on sale, and installed them all at once, so I haven't played with packs individually to get a feel for them. But I think.... I will try..
2. Late Night will be second on my list, because of bars, and the opportunity to have sims play in bands. I can undestand why sim bands won't have vocalists, but I wish they had more instruments to choose from (where is the electric guitar?)
3. Um.. pets? I just installed it so I haven't really played with it yet, but I can see that it can be a fun addition.
4. Supernatural, only because I can use it for story telling, but most of my worlds will be like real worlds were magic doesn't exist.
5. Ambitions - Its cool to give my sims more opportunities, but I probably won't be using the stylist career. :P
6. University Life - Sending sims to university can be cool, but it can also be a bit repetitive.
7. Generations - what did it do, besides add a stroller, a cane, a video camera that doesn't work and that annoying imaginary friend thing that I will only use once?
That's all I have installed.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Love them:
1. World Adventures. I wasn't really convinced I would like this in the beginning, but it turned out to be one of my most used and beloved expansions. Sometimes, you just need some time off - like in real life. Shang Simla is so pretty, and Al Simhara has the best tombs. With Traveler, I can bring the whole family and have some "normal" vacation. I also love the skills that came with this one.
2. University Life. Getting a degree can get formulaic and boring you say? True. But that system is set up so you can abuse it, so just do it. Best to go there with a sim who doesn't know anything (ironically, very skilled sims have a hard time at university) and can just scrape enough money together to enroll for two terms with a single 6 credit course (forget about the scholarship, it's meaningless). Then go wild, get skills, fulfill your life-time wish, get partners, even get rich. I love the sims there. I also use the furniture and clothes all the time. And the bowling alley. Did I mention two more traits for your sims? Yes, please.
3. Supernatural. I like the new stuff for vampires, but especially witches. Many of my sims are witches, at least the long-lived ones
4. Into the Future. Yeah, this is kind of the odd one out. The world can get boring after a while, but I had lots of fun there and sometimes have the family just relax in one of those houses over there. OL looks just great. I liked experimenting with plumbots. However, the main reason I rank this this high is the stuff I use all the time in my normal game. Transparent ceilings or, in other worlds, functioning greenhouses without store stuff? Gardening mats for greenhouses that aren't annoying? Actual functioning cafeterias without the need for store stuff? Yes, thank you.
Try to love them.
5. Ambitions. Ah, the consignment store, the mainstay that keeps my economy flowing. And some careers that suck up all your time and are best reserved for singles. I haven't done all of them, and I'm not sure I ever finished any except ghost hunters and firefighters. Oh, the bugs. I don't care for careers that need you to switch into editing modes, and I'll probably never do those. Simbots are funny, but need some tunings to make them less annoying. Twinbrook grew on me. Yes, the sims there are ugly, but the town is great for stories.
6. Generations. This gives some essential things to do for your kids and teens, and it's sometimes fun to do. Mid-life crises can be fun, too. I like to use some of the pre-made buildings. I sometimes rant about IF's, but I use them all the freaking time. Then again, I look at all the stuff I have switched off with Retuner because it's annoying. That pathetic scolding system, anyone?
Mixed feelings:
7. Late Night. This is hard to rate for me, because I started my journey into The Sims 3 with the Starter Pack (base game, Late Night and High-End Loft Stuff, plus some stuff from the store), so Bridgeport is my personal Sunset Valley. I love the bars and the look of the city. I still love the breath-taking look of it from across the river when you look out of a house there. Still, there are too many bars for too few people, they break after a while, the elevators are annoying and break all the time, NPC's get constantly stuck in the high-rises... Yeah, I see that I mostly rant about the city. The bars are a great addition to any town though, so that's kind of essential. In small doses though.
8. Seasons. Yes, the game may feel somewhat incomplete without them, but I don't think this was that well done. Without Tempest, I'd probably just switch Seasons off, given it's often non-stop thunderstorms for days during spring and autumn. Also, gardening is more or less forced indoors. I have banned deciduous trees from my families' lots. I don't care much for most of the holidays, but leisure day is kind of nice (the one day of the year sims use the pool without being forced). I love the snow in winter though, it's pretty and fun. The festival lots are a good addition.
Don't care
9. Showtime. It's fun to watch once or twice, but I never did a complete career from this expansion. The game is too much in love with these careers. Things are buggy (empty stages, anyone? Proprietors who need to be reset, anyone?). Love the genies, though. I also use one of the beds all the time. Lots of cool clothes. I've never used the world, so the rating may change.
10. Island Paradise. This is one of the unfair votes. Yeah, sorry, but I never used it so far. Maybe I should and get to love it, but that hasn't happened yet.
11. Pets. Ugh. I love pets in real life, but Sims3 pets are particularly needy. I went through raising cats and dogs in-game once and decided I'd never do it again. My sims still have pets sometimes, but the cats must be independent and at least two to keep their socials in check, and I just cheat their traits to something manageable. I mostly use the expansion for minor pets. They are quite fun, and birds are the best thing a witch can have in their pocket (they don't escape and double the speed they learn spells). So yes, I keep this active for my witches.
That's the ranking for today, but really, I could even have put Ambitions on the number 1 spot and Generations on 2. Or rank Late Night higher, when I'm especially in love with the lights of the city. In the end, ranking like that are mostly meaningless and just a glimpse of my current state of mind, but that's the fun thing about it: You can always discover something new every day
1. Generations
2. Island Paradise
3. Ambitions
4. World Adventures
5. Pets
6. Late Night
7. Supernatural
8.University Life
9. Seasons
10. Into the Future
11. Showtime