Cats & Dogs, Vampires or Parenthood?

FLIRTYINPINK · December 2017

Which one do you like more and why? Trying to figure out which one I should get.

Orchid13 · December 2017

Cats and dogs because I think households aren’t complete without them.
Vampires are fun , but I would pick cats and dogs over them. The world is awesome though even though it’s tiny.
Parenthood, I’m not really a family player so I still like the other two better, but if you are a family player the game adds a lot to sims development. Kids will develop certain values and that will influence the way they’ll grow up to be. CAS is ugly in my opinion though... I mean not ugly but meh

IceyJ · December 2017

Get all three, and just start with the pack you want the most. I honestly can't imagine my game without any of them. Wait for sales, if necessary.

poltergeist · December 2017

from a gameplay perspective, i would say: parenthood > vampires > c&d
unless you don't do any sort of family play whatsoever, then switch the first two. i'm not strictly a family player myself, but i do have a couple of legacies going and parenthood made them a lot more fun. to me, it really made tots/kids/teens feel like actual sims i need to care for and not just objects i am waiting to age up.
but, personally, i love c&d most because cats and dogs are just so cute and brindleton bay is great. the animals themselves don't really do a lot, but adding them to a househould makes them look fuller/complete/realistic. the cas/bb for c&d is also great.
you should check out trailers, reviews, and cas/bb reviews for all three to help you decide.

paradiseplanet · December 2017

Well it really all depends in how you play. If you're into playing with families, then I hear Parenthood is the absolute best for that (though since I don't play too much with extensive family play, I haven't gotten it yet). If you like playing with supernaturals, Vampires is one of the best packs the gurus have ever created so far, the vampires are very well done and are the best in the series yet. If you really want pets, you have to go for Cats/Dogs; sometimes a household isn't complete without those furbabies. If you like playing all of these, get 'em all! You can prioritise which aspect you'd like to play with first if you so choose.

Dannydanbo · December 2017

All three are good at being what they are. If you like supernaturals, you will love vampires. It's really well done and you can create any type of vampire you wish. If you like playing families, Parenthood is for you. It adds a lot of the little things that make families fun to play like mood swings and chores. If you're an animal lover, C&D is the one. There are only cats and dogs in this version but they are very well done and have personalities plus clothes which people seem to love.

My favorite is vampires because I love supes. I hope future supes are done as well.

drake_mccarty · December 2017

You can get both Vampires and Parenthood for the price of Cats and Dogs - unless that pack is on sale.

Parenthood is a good pack. Vampires is good too. The latter comes with a lot of beautiful build/buy stuff if that interests you. Cats and Dogs is a pack i would get on sale.

annaliese39 · December 2017

I love all three, but as others have said what you prefer will depend on how you like to play. For me personally, Vampires would be my first choice as I have always loved supernaturals and it's a truly great pack. You just need to think about what appeals most to you - perhaps check out the guides to help you decide. Honestly though I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

LiELF · December 2017

I can only answer from my personal perspective and tastes, so I'll just do that.

If you must get only one, get Vampires. It is amazing. If I were to choose just one pack of the entire Sims 4 series, it would be Vampires because it contains some of my absolute favorite things. The Victorian flavored build/buy stuff alone is to die for and it's just gorgeous. The CAS brought an entire new style that's different from anything they've released, and it has a modern gothic, yet old-world mix. The pack includes wall stickers that can change the entire look of a building inside and out, with cracks, stains and rips, so it opens up a whole new avenue of styles. The town of Forgotten Hollow has its own spooky ambiance that feels like it's right out of a movie and, though it's small, it's really fun to explore. Then, of course, there are the vampires themselves, and they are top notch. You can create any kind of plasma drinker you want, from just about any pop culture vampire genres like Nosferatu, Buffy, Dracula, Twilight...and you can give them an alternate dark form so they can look "normal" most of the time. Their powers and interactions go above and beyond anything we've seen in Sims 4 (or even other iterations of the Sims games) and it's so much fun to try out the different powers and weaknesses and study the lore and spar and use all of the cool abilities. On top of that, we have ways to ward off vampires, ways to turn them back into mortals, so you can play a hunter if you wish, and pursue a story from that direction. There are also new traits and aspirations, a creepy walk, gravestones, gargoyles, food dishes and drinks, spiderwebs that actually have active spiders, new withered plants, and animation effects. Seriously. Get this pack. It's worth more than its price, if you ask me.

For second place, I would recommend Cats and Dogs. This expansion, to me, is one of the best ones. I know there has been debate over that, but as a crazy cat person, I think that the cats alone are perfect (purrfect? haha). There's something very pleasing about cats being able to ride the Roombas and jump all over the counters.

The pets are not playable, but they offer their own challenging gameplay in the way that the player must pay attention to the animals to find out what their needs are. Depending on their traits, some pets will be more dependent than others, some will require more attention, some will need more maintenance. And the Create-A-Pet goes way above and beyond by including a plethora of breeds and customization choices, as well as an extensive paint program just for them. Oh, and little outfits and things too. The pack also includes a new playable career, so you can be a veterinarian. I had more fun with this than I expected to, although some of the illnesses are a little hokey and can be a bit invasive when a stray is walking around with something glowing, but I don't find it to be a deal breaker. But the town of Brindleton Bay...it's just gorgeous and very aesthetically pleasing. The public areas feel larger and more open than usual, and the town ambiance is spot on with a New England flavor. There are a few little surprises here and there, but BB is certainly one of my very favorite maps.

I can't tell you the benefits of Parenthood because I don't have it, I can only tell you why I chose not to buy it. Firstly, I'm not a deep family player, and I like to keep the kids in my families self-sufficient and low maintenance. I would have bought the pack to try out the new personality characteristics, but then I found out that kids and toddlers autonomously create messes for the purpose of giving the parents a reason to discipline them, but they do this everywhere they go, and this means that all of the public areas that have playgrounds will be covered in mess all the time. They do it on community lots, the townie kids are messy, and it gets out of control if there are a lot of children in your game. This would make me insane so I decided to live without the pack altogether. If that wouldn't bother you, then you might really enjoy the pack.

Hope any of that information helps. Good luck!

TheHavocado · December 2017

I probably will simplify too much but, in terms of content, well Cats & Dogs is your best bet I guess ?

Vampires are, in a nutshell, just a kind of testingcheats on (literally, since all bar can be freezed except thirst & energy, but then you got dark meditation.) and add a bit of freeze ray functionality (a bit of cooler animation, of course), and it's done. Unless you're a true vampire fan, I don't think the rest of the content will be worth that much. Especially if you compared these 3 packs.

And while Parenthood is indeed a good thing, unless you're a family player, it isn't worth it. If you're not a family player, the only thing's good is :

1. The responsibility trait (it's a no-risk word play, and give quite a performance boost at work)
2. School Projects helps a lot to school performance, and any sims who work on it learnt a skill based on the projects. It's a win-win situation.
3. The "caring for children" part actually becomes a bit more fun than it should be.

The other 'good' traits doesn't really have a noticeable impact. Well, probably Emotional Control and Empathy, but then you got a mirror. The 'bad' ones though, it's crazy.

But I do recommend all of them though, you need parenthood to build families, you can have vampires to help on that regard, and a bit of cats & dogs to spice up that loneliness in the closed world game... unless you hated them with a passion.

And oh, since you basically compared an EP with GP yeah well I can't really say that much either.

chicvibe · December 2017

I like cats and dogs, because there are great CAS items as well. EA is really upping their game as far as content I actually want to use. The cats act just like mine do, and the laser litter box is something I want IRL soooo bad. Brindleton Bay is also really pretty. Vampires are cool, but Forgotten Hollow doesn't add as much game-play as far as the WORLD is concerned. Vampire CAS is really cool and scary, though, but I don't use as much of the CAS items like cats and dogs.

Ultimately though, if you are able to, when the holidays come around, get the packs on sale. The deals can be pretty sweet.

silversg · January 2018

> @Dannydanbo said:
> All three are good at being what they are. If you like supernaturals, you will love vampires. It's really well done and you can create any type of vampire you wish. If you like playing families, Parenthood is for you. It adds a lot of the little things that make families fun to play like mood swings and chores. If you're an animal lover, C&D is the one. There are only cats and dogs in this version but they are very well done and have personalities plus clothes which people seem to love.
>
> My favorite is vampires because I love supes. I hope future supes are done as well.

I think this is a really good summary. :smile: Personally, pets are so important to me that I didn't even start buying packs for The Sims 4 until Cats & Dogs was officially announced. :grin: After that, I'd prioritize Parenthood over Vampires, because unless you end up really enjoying playing vampires, you will probably end up playing households with children much more often than vampires. But again, like @Dannydanbo and others have said, it's really down to personal preference.

I recommend you plan to buy all three of them. :) Are you in the U.S.? Cats & Dogs is 50% off right now. Parenthood and Vampires are 25% off. I think this particular sale lasts until January 5.

CutePlayzTS · January 2018

Cats and Dogs, it is the only one I've had but it's awesome. My fav feature is building and managing your own vets and also it can be a challenge as you can't play as the dog or cat you have to sort of guess what's wrong and you can train the dog too.

VengefulNoodles · January 2018

I own the three of them myself, and I really enjoy parenthood expansion pack.It add's a realistic feature to the game, depending on how the child is raised and the choices they make as teen determines the type of an adult they become.

FLIRTYINPINK · January 2018

I do like Vampires and Victorian Themes I see it's only 14.99 now to pick between Cats & Dogs or Parenthood.

filipomel · January 2018

For me,
1. Cats and Dogs
2. Parenthood
3. Vampires

I don’t think I can play without cats and dogs at this point, I have them in most of my households as they add a dynamic and autmosphere that I really enjoy, I also love the variety in personality each pet has. My lazy cat is lazy, and my curious cat is constantly sniffing objects around the house, I love how whenever someone knocks on the door my dog goes to bark at the door, the cats and dogs personalities are so vibrant and distinct and I love that. Recently my dog ran away, and when she came back home there was an interaction called “welcome back” and I thought it was absolutely adorable. None of my pets have gotten sick yet so I can’t really say much about visiting the vet, I also haven’t gotten around to actually playing the vet business, but from the cats and dogs experience alone I’m really enjoying it.

Parenthood adds a lot of new tools for story telling, I’m not much of a legacy player, but when playing children and up, I love pretty much all the new features, school projects, diary, mood swings, phases, grounding, curfew, etc. I use the pack more for the tools it gives me rather than actually raising the kids.

As you can already tell by the other posts, Vampires is a very niche but well done pack, get it if it suits your tastes.

fadingaudio · January 2018

Honestly, I find pets so needy way more than my actual real life pets and way more than in TS3, 2 or 1. My main save has them, but my other saves I play more often and they don't have them at all because of how annoying they become so fast. I would recommend vampires or parenthood depending on your playstyle. Family player then parenthood if not then vampires. Honestly, I am a family player I still enjoyed vampires more, but I am a HUGE fan of supernatural stuff so I think that's why. No lie if you look at some websites like CDkeys and other online key websites you can probably get both GPs for pretty cheap and cheaper than the pet EP. They are both the best GPs we've had yet. I get more out of them than I have gotten out of the EPs.

cedesdc · January 2018

Personally I like Parenthood, I start my sims as teens now so they have a chance to get the extra traits, vampires are super cool though, and Cats n Dogs wasn't such a super cool experience I guess, maybe I need to explore it more though~

TTNsimmer · February 2018

Imo vampires>cats and dogs>parenthood but i ll try to give an objective review CAS: vampires- cad-phood, BUILD/BUY: vamp-cd-parenthd, NEW WORLD: cad-vampires- parenthd doesnt have one, GAMEPLAY: vampires-parenthood- cats and dogs but that is strictly personnal- it depends on what kind of player are you. NECESSITY FOR ORDINARY GAMEPLAY: phood- cats a d-vampires ORIGINALITY vampires-phood- cats and dogs..hope i helped. They are all pretty good though.

Jordan061102 · February 2018

They are all good!
Parenthood > Cats & Dogs > Vampires (even if I admit that Vampires has the best gameplay).

TTNsimmer · February 2018

[quote="filipomel;c-16242288"]For me,
1. Cats and Dogs
2. Parenthood
3. Vampires

I don’t think I can play without cats and dogs at this point, I have them in most of my households as they add a dynamic and autmosphere that I really enjoy, I also love the variety in personality each pet has. My lazy cat is lazy, and my curious cat is constantly sniffing objects around the house, I love how whenever someone knocks on the door my dog goes to bark at the door, the cats and dogs personalities are so vibrant and distinct and I love that. Recently my dog ran away, and when she came back home there was an interaction called “welcome back” and I thought it was absolutely adorable. None of my pets have gotten sick yet so I can’t really say much about visiting the vet, I also haven’t gotten around to actually playing the vet business, but from the cats and dogs experience alone I’m really enjoying it.

Parenthood adds a lot of new tools for story telling, I’m not much of a legacy player, but when playing children and up, I love pretty much all the new features, school projects, diary, mood swings, phases, grounding, curfew, etc. I use the pack more for the tools it gives me rather than actually raising the kids.

As you can already tell by the other posts, Vampires is a very niche but well done pack, get it if it suits your tastes.[/quote]

I agree completely about the pet traits part. I wish the Sim traits were too that distinctive hehe

paradiseplanet · February 2018

Vampires > Parenthood > Cats & Dogs

Easy.

Gaming_Elizabeth · February 2018

Personally the first one I would chose to buy is Cat’s and Dog’s, you get animals, new clothing and build mode items as you get with most packs but you also get the chance to build your own vet clinic and explore a new world, as an added bonus Cats and Dogs goes on sale a lot.

GalacticGal · February 2018

Parenthood. With the advent of toddlers in the game and a better skill set for them, parenthood, also gives the player much more input to how their born-in-game Sims will turn out. I like this 'control', if that's what it can be called. I like being able as the player to help shape who my Sims will turn out to be. Plus, if successful, your YA Sims will get additional Traits for all of your effort. Pretty satisfying.

calaprfy · February 2018

FLIRTYINPINK wrote: »

Which one do you like more and why? Trying to figure out which one I should get.

If you want vampires in your game, you know which pack to buy.

If you want cats & dogs in your game, you know which pack to buy.

If you want to grind for hours to get kids to do stuff in order to get a mere extra trait, you know which pack to buy.

Johnvincent1229 · February 2018

obviously get cats and dog because its the best one out of the options

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Cats & Dogs, Vampires or Parenthood?

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