What is your favorite expansion pack?

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Which is your favorite?

University
3
12%
Nightlife
5
20%
Open for Business
4
16%
Pets
1
4%
Seasons
3
12%
Bon Voyage
0
No votes
Free Time
1
4%
Apartment Life
8
32%
 
Total votes: 25

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LostInReverie
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What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by LostInReverie »

What's your favorite expansion pack and why? :pan:

Mine is Open for Business. I loved being able to manage and control my own business. It was one of the most fun aspects of Sims 2 to me.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Lorinsv »

That's a very tough choice, and while as a BaCC player I have a new appreciation for running businesses, I have to go with Seasons for the fishing and especially the gardening.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by mandarine »

Mine is probably Nightlife. Subneighborhoods aka Downtowns, Mini-Jobs, Vampires and tacky furniture/wallpapers....yup, probably my favourite Add-On.
Freetime is probably the one I like the least. The buy-stuff was nice, but I really dislike all that hobby-group thingamabob, especially all those calls if I would like to join a club or want to order a magazine when I'm just skilling something for my friggin' job -.-
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Keika »

See, Freetime almost got my vote, because I really like all the hobby badges and such you can do there. Open For Business is fun, and so are Seasons and Pets... I really enjoy all of the EP's, to be honest. Although, I had to cast my vote for Apartment Life. I love the apartments, and I use the AL build/buy content all the time, but witches are my absolute favorite life state. Couldn't live without 'em. ^^
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by MichelleCYoung »

It's tough to choose, because I adore aspects of them all.

However, my all-time favorite is witches, and now that I don't have Freetime or Apartment Life, I REALLY realize just how much I miss it. And walking to school and work. And apartments, so your broke sims can still live in relative luxury with public rooms. And witches. And THRONES! And...

BTW, being a witch is a great money-maker, too. I have made a fortune going to the witch's lot (with no time passing at home), and made a fortune while I skilled, making reagents, potions, and objects to sell. Then, you just sit on the throne to mood-up, and start some more. It's fantastic.

And if you have skilling on community lots, you become a mean witch (JUST mean), and go to the always-fall castle of darkness and doom, and skill up there, really fast, and then mood-up, and go to the palace of light, and train to be good, so you can cast the awesome spells, like Benemoodus Populous, which is absolutely fantastic to save a droopy outing, or save money on a family vacation, or just save a sim's life, when they come home early from work, with a chance card, and starve to death on the sidewalk.

Or, for that matter, being an evil witch, and raising your own zombies, no bone-phone required. Starting fires is a great way to meet cute NPCs. And just being generally nasty to the neighbors got a whole lot more interesting for those zero-nice-point sims out there.

And networking! I love the networking.

Getting a roommate.

There's just so much in that expansion pack.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by WistfulRose »

It was so hard to choose! I finally decided on apartment life. I love the expansion packs. I'm completely in agreement with Keika, though I'm not as ecstatic about witches as she is, though I do adore them. I love the apartments and use them when I can, I just wish they were slightly bigger. But whatever their apartments, so they should be small. And Freetime is great, but all the stupid hobby stuff that shows up all the time is really annoying. The losing enthusiasm pop ups, the gaining enthusiasm pop ups. the membership cards, the magazine calls. and not to mention the job events that only affect hobby enthusiasm. It's just all so annoying. But I love the other parts of it too much to get rid of it. Bon Voyage is a fun one too, though it's more of those once in awhile things. And I wish in pets that stray dogs wouldn't dig holes in your sims yard! It drives me insane. Anyway, I'll shut up now.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Heather »

I like that free time gives more personality to your sims, with secondary aspirations, hobbies, and perks. Half of the expansion packs are still fairly new to me though, so that might change.

And I know this was the question, but my favourite stuff pack is definitely the Ikea one. I use the furniture from it all the time.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Simsimity »

I cast my vote for Seasons, even though I love it, Freetime, OFB and AL probably all equally - but I do the most with the gardening and fishing regularly. :)
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MichelleCYoung
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by MichelleCYoung »

WistfulRose - Regarding the hobby chance cards, back when I had Windows and all the expansion packs, I was playing an apocalypse challenge (It's Gooooooone!) and my founder was saved by a hobby chance card. You see, he'd already had the chance card for his business level, and did not get the promotion he needed, and he was running out of time! Then, the next day, with no time to spare, he got a hobby chance card that sent him home early with a promotion! He was able to lift his restriction, make the call to invite his intended over, get married, and then age into an elder. She had to invite him to woohoo, but whatever. It worked.

Had it not been for that hobby chance card, I'd have to start all over. As it was, I got to about generation three before my computer went flooey.

Also, for stuff packs, I really miss the Ikea stuff pack. Cheap, yet comfortable chairs that fit the apocalypse restrictions! Plus, you got a lot of matching furniture, that looked good.

Now, as for Mac expansion packs, I'm going to buck the trend and say University. Yes, I actually do enjoy playing students. Maybe it's because I'm NOT a student, any more. Ah, those sweet (not) halcyon days of my youth, with the never-ending term papers and homework assignments. Now, I get to watch my sims do them, while I bask in the knowledge that I won't have to do another one, ever again. Plus, it's darned useful, if you're trying to make actually successful sims.

But Apartment Life is still my favorite. Witches!
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Olive Specter »

I like all of them for different reasons but I think my answer might be Open for Business.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Pony »

I vote for Pets though Apartment Life and OFB were very close runners up.

I love having dogs and cats and more fish. *is a dork* and womrats. I've had womrats live in Greek houses for generations.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Scribal_Goddess »

Such a hard question! I've had Seasons and OFB forever now, and use functions of both excessively. As someone who does a lot of staging and decorating, Apartment Life has bee amazing...

But in the end I went with Nightlife, because when I first got the game I got Double Deluxe and I literally cannot imagine playing without Nightlife. :)
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by subtropicalhigh »

University is definitely my favorite because I feel like it gives more of a backstory to your sims and for me personally, I become more attached to my sims when I venture through college life by their side.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Bokavoy »

I like all of them but University is probably my favorite. I don't know what it is about it but I just love it so much.
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Re: What is your favorite expansion pack?

Post by Sam_Strife »

I can't decide on a whim, so I'll have to go over them.

University spruced the game up so much back then. For starters I was glad I could do simple stuff like merge households... Vanilla Sims 2 was not a pretty thing. There wasn't that much to the base game. It was just grow up from childhood, get into a boring career grind and/or become a baby factory, probably spend your sim's entire adult life raising those brats, then grow to elder and subsequently die. Hooray. The Young Adult phase changed this uninteresting routine for good.

To me the universities are still the heart of the game, the highlight of a sim's life, because they get plenty of time for you to get to know them, and for them to develop their skills & relationships. When I create a sim from scratch I usually do so in a university neighborhood so they can experience the college life, because a sim never experiencing college does suck for them, they'll really miss out. Their days as a Young Adult are the best days of a sim's life.

It's a nice system, striking an excellent balance between Sims having enough free time to be themselves and, well, do whatever sims do, while not being the same as simply having a household of adults in a normal neighborhood with motherlodes of cash, just sitting around without any gameplay goals. The universities' assigments at least gives your sims something to do... and with several ways of achieving it of course. Woo the professors and you can get away with never doing actual school work. A nice alternative for the average lazy Romance sim. So it doesn't have to be a boring grind either, unlike adult sim careers. Achieve those grades in whichever way you want.

The soundtrack is especially nostalgic. The main theme of Sims 2 University has since been remixed in every Sims 2 expansion, and even Sims 3 used its own rendition as the game's main theme. How awesome is that? Definitely tells me that Sims 2 University was a big influence on the series as a whole.

I used to get annoyed at the cheerleaders & llama's randomly entering lots (even 'private' lots that are neither dorms nor greek houses) doing their "Voo Gerbits!" chant, but over the years it's grown on me, in its own typically goofy Maxis sort of way. Can't have a Maxis game without characters like that, really. And if you still can't stand those guys, hey, Maxis also granted us the magical gift of the cowplant in the same EP, as if they realized there were gonna be some annoying dang townies who needed to go at some point. Then another career reward lets you be extra cruel and turn them into zombies. The complete package. This EP had such awesome career rewards.

Nightlife: I looked forward to this EP back then. Mainly because cars, woohoo! (and cars woohoo, come to think of it) Finally The Sims would officially allow your sims to have their own car without having to carpool everywhere or relying on taxi's. The rest of Nightlife was grand too; before this EP, since I was a lazy builder, I didn't have an incentive to have adult sims visit public lots. But Downtown had plenty of nice lots, my favorites were the bowling alleys. Also, vampires are my favorite life state in Sims 2, ever since I had a taste of those bloodsuckers I just can't have Sims 2 without them.

Open for Business is where I feel the Sims 2 lineage truly 'matured'. I remember OFB fleshed out so much, it's difficult to list everything it did for the game. While I don't often partake in running business, I like the fact that it's there, it's like, a whole game mode on its own. Also IIRC The Sims 3 & 4 haven't had this feature where you could run your own business, that makes this EP especially stand out and gives Sims 2 that shine which the others lack.

Pets Is probably my least favorite EP, but that doesn't mean I don't like it, I just don't like it AS much as all the other EPs which are so fantastic that this one gets overshadowed a bit. Exactly as the name says, it adds pets, and that's pretty much it. While the EPs before it added way more than just whatever the EP gimmick was about.

Seasons was captivating to me. Sims 1 Unleashed added a lot of the gardening stuff alongside the pets. In Unleashed the pets being added were really just an extra, a bonus, compared to the buttload of other content. so once I got Sims 2 Pets I was let down because in comparison to Unleashed, it didn't add that many features. Tough act to follow I suppose. But luckily my prayers were answered afterwards with S2:Seasons. The seasons truly make the game come alive, not just staring at the same neighborhood landscapes all the time. It changes, transforms, every sim day is no longer identical. Wheather is a big thing in real life so it's great that Sims 2 caught up with this one. I also love Riverblossom Hills; I was getting a bit tired of the old Pleasantview/Strangetown/Veronaville, finally a new Maxis-made neighborhood, I thought.

It adds so much personality to the game. I'm especially fond of the winter season, mainly because it's the most distinct season. It's especially nice for sim families; take them to the park to build snowmen and have snowball fights, then go on the skating rink,... Finally the game no longer felt like a never-ending hot summer stasis. That was getting old.

Bon Voyage I always had a soft spot for Sims 1's vacation expansion, and I was so happy when it finally returned in Sims 2. Vacations are nice to have sim couples or families bond, because at home they're either all distracted with work/skilling/homework or there's not much for a sim family to really "do" besides sit on the couch together, or something. Well, not anymore with this one. Let's just say a lot of my Family aspiration sims were happy.

Freetime: Thanks to Freetime it no longer felt like my Sims were merely about work, needs, raising babies, growing old, and dying. The hobby interest mechanic adds some more personality to sims. For example say I have a sim who I've styled after a dance instructor. I could let him dance after work, but ultimately this all comes down to roleplay I'm doing, it's not what this sim really wants to do himself per se. Freetime changed that. If I have this guy dance a lot, he'll love dancing, talk about it with other sims and so on. It seems like a small aspect but it makes a big difference to me, how sims are now excited about what they actually do in their leisure time.

Apartment Life I love magicians. This EP handles it well, too, I'm especially fond of the alignment system so that my sims don't merely have to be 'a witch', but I can roleplay them a bit (well they'll usually roleplay themselves, those evil witches have a mind of their own). The fact each alignment has a throne per witch/warlock for them to endlessly sit on is a fantastic addition to; I've always wanted an 'emperor' type sim who could sit on his butt all day and only rise when he felt like it (you could use cheats for that, but meh).

Apartments itself are also a great thing. I was getting a bit tired of my adult sims just being on their own lot, it gets kind of lonely for them and I don't always wish to constantly visit public lots. Even if my sim is a loner, it's a nice feeling that he's not the only one living on the lot, but he's part of an apartment bloc, which sort of acts like a small community. It beats having 8 sims in a household just to simulate that. I've also always wanted apartments to be a thing ever since The Sims 1. I didn't want to simply live in houses all the time.

I see the apartment system as a hybrid between University's dorms and an adult sim's way of living. It took what made University work and applied it to regular neighborhoods. Apartment Life is a wonderful expansion, I can sense that a lot of dedication and passion went into it, because I'm sure the creators knew in the back of their heads that this would be the last true expansion for The Sims 2, so they wanted to leave on a high note, throwing a lot of great things towards the players before taking off.

For me it's a toss-up between University, Open for Business, Seasons and Apartment Life. Those are my favorites.
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