Hmm I would go for Celebration Stuff as Family Fun Stuff only comes with in my opinion annoying costumes for children. The new beds and wallpapers are fun but get old rather fast.

Well I wouldn't go out and get Celebration Stuff if there are better stuff packs out there... I mean after all it doesn't really matter if your cake has blue sprinkles or yellow, not really that much. If you really want dresses and suits, CC would be a better option because I don't think Celebration Stuff comes with a lot more besides that.

You're right about that I suppose.

If you were asking between Celebration Stuff and Family Fun Stuff, I'd choose Family Fun Stuff, because you can actually make your kid's room look like a kids room now. Plus the new kid's clothings are pretty cute, and the Hawaiian clothes look good if you wear them on vacation to Twiki Island. FFS has stuff in it that you'd use everyday, but CS just comes with things to make your parties look better, and I personally don't really throw a lot of parties.

I quite like Celebration Stuff, because I like throwing wedding parties and taking lots and lots of photos! :-D It's nice to have more cakes available, and there is some nice custom content that requires CS so I'm glad I've got it!

I'm not a huge fan of Family Fun Stuff - I don't like the outfits or the furniture much really, so I don't use the stuff from it much.

I don't use the Happy Holidays stuff much either, my sims rarely celebrate Christmas so it's never really very useful!

On the whole I'd recommend Celebration Stuff :-) Though I do have all three, and there are a few things in each pack that I like! :-D

Furniture isn't too big of a reason for me. I have a lot a lot a lot a lot of custom furniture I use, and what isn't custom I use the stuff from IKEA (it's rly nice <3).
I'm really just trying to figure out which stuff pack I'd want. Above all I'd want Holiday Stuff because of the ability to have holidays, but not if it'll cost me more than an EP. :\
I'll most likely go with Family Fun. Thank you!

Hi all.

Haven´t played the game for some time. Just got new laptop, unbelievably fast and of course I had to install my measly three EP´s(OFB, Nightlife and UNI).
Anyways this thread is very helpfull to me, because I am seriously thinking of getting a fourth EP, and from what I can gather on the posts here, Seasons is the best, not including the one I already have?
Personal taste is of course a factor, but I am very interested in building homes and sligthy less interested in actually playig. So an EP with lots of cool houses or just new way of building them, ie one where the walls can curve or individual roof angles. Love to have new windows and doors soon. So any ideas?

I think my choices are quite similar to a lot of people here. But here goes anyway:
#1: Seasons
Love the graphics, love the idea of growing stuff, love small things like fireflies and scarecrow. I'm a customizing maniac so I never actually play much. I read about juice recipes and wishing well that came with Seasons, gonna try those some time. Nevertheless I'd put Seasons on top just for the element of weather.
#2: Nightlife
Vampires & dating. That's about it and that's enough.
#3: OFB
At first I wasn't impressed, but then I realized that OFB is like adding a tycoon mini game to Sims and it's quite fun.
#4: Pets
Cats...

I've played all the Sims 2 EPs at one point, but the other ones not mentioned are just plain boring. Uni is like two seperate games, BV is fun for a while but that's it (I only like the voodoo doll and ninja teleportation), AL seriously slows my game down, and finally I just don't care for FT...

BTW back when I played Sims 1 I really loved Superstar. Wonder why they never did it for TS2. Seasons and Pets are actually quite like the old Unleashed...

University
I don't see what the problem with this game. A Sim's college years really are fun, at least in my opinions, especially if you live in the dorms. Eight semesters might sound like a long time, but considering that each one is only around ten(?) days, it shouldn't go by to slowly.

Nightlife
This is far and away my favorite expansion pack. Literally, I send my Sims downtown practically everyday. I couldn't care less about cars - clubs, restaurants, and dating are what do it for me.

Pets
I could live without this one. The items it adds are, in general, really ugly and I hardly ever find myself making pets. This is the only expansion pack I have that really seems lacking.

Seasons
I like the additions of seasons and weather, but I often find myself changing the settings to be summer all year. The personal thermometer is really annoying. Really, if anyone knows a mod that gets rid of it or keeps Sims' at a comfortable temperature forever, please tell me.

Glamour Life Stuff
Some formalware added, but that's pretty much it. I usually only use the outfits added by this stuff pack on really gaudy Sims.

H&M Fashion Stuff
This adds pages upon pages of new outfits. They're all really cool and attactive as well.

In total, I've spent $0 on the Sims 2. The base game, expansions, and stuff packs were all given to me as gifts from people outside my immediate family. However, I really want Apartment Life and would be willing to pay money for it. The other EPs I don't have also sound interesting enough, but I'm not desperate for them. I wish that EA would just make a complete collection like they did for The Sims 1.

Nightlife: I really like it. I love the new community lots and being able to go on outings and dates. I also think the vampires are fun, although I've never had a vampire sim yet. It's actually harder then I thought... Vampires never seem to want to talk to my sims.

University: I really like this EP. I found this really nice dorm house here on MTS that I can't wait to use. I think University is a nice break from regular gameplay and you make a lot of friends, but it's annoying when you graduate and you never really see your Uni friends anymore and they all end up leaving messages asking why they haven't called. I also like the hairstyles and clothes it gives you, and all the new furniture and social interactions.

Open For Business: To be honest, I haven't really used this expansion pack much since I got it for Christmas. I haven't even opened a business. But I think the lemonade stand for children is cool.

Pets: I don't really care for this EP. It's hard to make a cute dog or cat, and I find it a hassle having to take care of a dog or a cat while I'm trying to take care of my sims.

Seasons: I just got it a few days ago, but I'm liking it a lot so far. My sims now have a lot more interactions to do with others like water balloon fights and play catch. I haven't gotten into winter yet (I'm in Fall right now), but I'm very excited to start making snowmen and snow angels!

Celebration Stuff: I don't really throw parties. I never throw birthday parties, I just get a birthday cake. And I usually just have quick weddings, but I do really like the new furniture and the wedding dresses and suits.

IKEA Stuff: I really love the furniture. Some of it is so simple that I don't see why some of this stuff wasn't in the base game. I use some of the furniture in all of my sim's houses.

Teen Style Stuff: I like the new furniture. I can now make my teen sim's rooms actually look like a teen's room.

H&M Fashion Stuff: My god, I love ALL of the clothes that come with this pack! It's hard to choose just one!

Kitchen & Bath Stuff: I actually haven't used anything from this pack I don't think, but some of the stuff does look really nice.

Mansion & Garden Stuff: I can't build nice houses, so the building decorations are worthless to me, but the garden stuff is nice, although I don't really keep gardens.

Family Fun Stuff: I actually haven't used much stuff in this pack yet since it's pretty expensive for my sims (I don't use money cheats), but I do like the theme sets for children's bedrooms. But there isn't really any set for a boy's room, there's like a princess theme and a mermaid theme set.

From most to least favorite EP :
1. Open for Business, I love money and business.
2. Apartment life, I can get discount and anything else from other people (social class)
3. Seasons, what is a life without weather???
4. Pets, same like Seasons.
5. Nightlife, I don't need to build community lots again.
6. Freetime, love the lifetime Aspiration Benefit.
7. University, not-so-much benefit, for me.
8. Bon Voyage, nothing interesting, except the pirate ghost.

For SP, I don't have any (poor me). But from my friend's laptop, I think that Glamour life Stuff is great, to accompany Open for Business.

...From a movie maker's point of view...

In order...

The Sims 2 Nightlife
The vampires and stuff is a favourite for Sims 2. It has LOADS of new interactions and great ascpects such as dating,

vampires and CARS! Furthermore some of the outfits that come tih NightLife are very good, and again are useful for movies.

You get many more new objects helping expand your Sim world and the option to give your Sim turn-ons and turn-offs is pretty

cool, too.

The Sims 2 Bon Voyage
Personally, it has some great interactions such as looking around and what-not in my opinion. And the seperate holidays sets

are a bonus. And have you seen all the cc that requires BV? You also get some interesting jewellery.

The Sims 2 Freetime
Having you Sims do hobbies is always interesting, and it offers a whole new element to the game, making it a completely

different game and in some ways it could be easier to keep your Sims happy.
HOWEVER, if your Sims starts listening to music, you get the Music&Dance lady come around, not very practical. And if you've

recently been on the treadmill or something, the Sim will then stand there in an idle way and start punching the air dur to

their enthusiasm in sport. Which is weird.

The Sims 2 University
There is nothing wrong with thiss expansion pack. Only good comes of it, as you get new things to make your teens and (now)

young adults seem much more real, and you can get some interesting things such as phones and cameras. And for people who make

horror movies, ZOMBIES! Yeah, that is also awesome.

The Sims 2 Seasons
You get some interesting weather with this, and it all looks very pretty. But if you want to make a movie, sometimes the

random outburst of rain can really bug you. But when it kicks off into a storm, well, get the aspiration full and use the

weather-controller otherwise the place will catch on fire. Not cool. However you do now get the option tohave 'outerwear'

which is cool.

The Sims 2 Open For Business
This has some great haristyles and interactions. Which again can only be benefitial. And the option to own your own

businesses is good, too. This expansion pack is great for when you want to make a movie based on a community lot, however it

always seems better to have fake shops because with real ones, sometimes you hire people to work for you or even you yourself

could be working and some reandom townies could just appear and some glitches have caused some of the townies to look very

unusual, however you get a lot new items (Obviosuly to meet various customers' needs) which always look good on display.

There were going to be moreitems, but EAxis believed they weren't quite appropriate and therefore gathered them all together

and shoved them in a Stuff pack called 'Family Fun Stuff'.

The Sims 2 Apartment Life
I don't actually own this one, but like any Simmer, I would obviously know about it. The option to live in apartment not only

gives a good new elemntto the game, but also seems quite realistic for movies. And if you don't want a realistic movie, well,

that's where the bookcase-door thing comes in. Also, there is a HUGE amount of custom content that require AL, and it comes

with a lot of it's own content. These include interesting clothing and good items for build-mode, as a lot of custom windows

seem to require AL, getting this EP would certianly open up the world of windows (If you pardon the pun) for you.

The Sims 2 Pets
Despite this being a good expansion pack, Sims 2 Pets causes a bit of trouble for custom-content creators. EAxis selfeshly

thought that they could get away with making it so that half of our accessories (or pretty much any created prior to the

game's release) seem to flash blue. This is just a small problem, which can be fixed, but is just annoying. And because of

this mistake, you would expect Pets to do something to win you back. But infact it doesn't, it offers a wide variety of pet-

themed furniture. Why you'd want a sofa with apaw-print on it, I don't know. And the pets may look good in the background,

but it is hard trying to make a movie with them. As pets are very hard to control, even when using cheats and some of the

hacks out there, sometimes it works best with say only cats than dogs. Furthermore, sometimes you get either the neighbours'

pets or just a randomly generated pet that just happens to walk into your lot, which is annoying during filming you have

somee stupid dog just prance onto the set. Of course you have to then either get a Sim to shoo them away, but if they're too

busy doing better things such as striking a pose, you can always use Moveobjects on and delete the mutt.

And there is my list of the best expansion packs to have. I hope it was interesting


And HERE'S my list of Stuff Packs, just incase you were wondering about them.

Introduction
Luckily, Stuff Packs only add opbjects and such to the game, and not whole new element such as hobbies or really annoying

patches. This makes them a good bundle of fun things which are always nice to have aren't they?

IKEA Home Stuff
This comes with a wide range of furniturefrom IKEA, which is great, as it bring a nice, sophisticated and modern atmosphere

to your game. Furthermore, if you worried that it will bring something hideous to your Create-A-Sim menu, it doesn't! IKEA

likes not to stick it's nose where it doesn't belong, and therefore keeps to itself in the way that it only gives you stuff

in Buy Mode. This is an SP to have, it won't be demanding on your game, and the furniture's realistic, sophisticated feel can

only be benefitial.

H&M Fashion Stuff
A nice amount of clothing from the popular H&M brand. As well as looking cool enough for people to want to keep rather than

be ashamed of it because EAxis made it, the many clothes also provide a great many decent and unique meshes for people who

are interested in creating new clothes. Furthermore, H&M Fashion Stuff also comes with a lot of new and unique objects. From

simple pieces of furniture or rugs to having your very own 'H&M' store-sign, which again i great for building your own H&M

store. And to complete the look, it also comes with a variety of shopping-goods (As well as a few pre-made shops) such as

signs for in the store, clothing racks and cash-registers. Like a good Stuff pack, H&M Fashion Stuff is good to have.

Mansion and Garden Stuff
Again, an overall benefitial stuff pack, it brings a nice sophistication to building your houses, letting you make them that

little bit more posh, and you get new tools in build mode, such as being allowed to choose how much the roof tilts, making

your houses look truly custom. There is a lot of content for buy-mode, too, from a range of themes, and for the movie maker,

this is good.
And for Create-A-Sim, there are a few interesting hairstyles that aren't anything to be ashamed of having in your movies,

also the fact that it is the latest Stuff Pack is an extra advantage, because you'll now know that you have the latest one

out there and you shouldn't be missing out on much. Ceiling are also a great bonus, wherea Apartment Life uses the above

floor-tiles, this one uses plain plaster ceilings, they're optional, and they allow you to put whatever you want on the floor

above.
One down side, there are a few known compatibilty issues since it is, after all, the lastest Stuff Pack.

Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff
This is a great Stuff Pack, which with it's nice casual attire is very encouraging to get you to start making your Sims

lounge about, and give you yourself a break from makinjg movies. But away from that, as the name says, it comes with a huge

amount of furniture for your kitchen and bathrooms making them look as realistic as possible. From unique showers to very

modern fridges, this Stuff Pack is a great addition to your Sims collection.

Glamour Life Stuff
Living the life of a glamour-person may not be every movie-maker's ideal story, but it certainly is for most of them,

especially those who are just strting and like their dramatic stories. However, it has so much to it, this Stuff Pack can

appeal to almost every Sims 2 player. With it's great clothing meshes which are largely recoloured online now and it's

interesting furniture, this Stuff Pack is a great one to have, and not only that, but it also comes with some good

architectural content.

Teen Style Stuff
Equally as good as Glamour Life Stuff, it has three themes these are Skater, Goth and Socialite. The Skater is the rebellious

teen who like to do what they're told not to, the Goth is dark, and keep to themself and the Socialite is all about going out

with friends and getting themself known. How much more realistic could you get? Not only that, but each of these styles come

with their own clothing, hairstyles, architecture and furniture. You can get your Skater a clothes-rack that was once a

skateboard, or you can give your darker Sim and red and black wardrobe. The clothing you get in Create-A-Sim is amazing too,

for the Skater you get those type of clothes, with the hree-quater lenght pants and what not, with the Goths you get the

dresses, outfits, fishnets and leather vests, and the Socialite can wear whatever they like, and their relaxed cltohing

reflects that. To sum it up, this Stuff Pack is a bunch of goodie for your Teen Sims, and let's face, who doesn't make a Sims

movie based on teens? This is definitely a Stuff Pack to have, and is highly recommended just for that reason. However in the

custom-content world, it is even better, with recolour that require things from this Pack to conversions from clothing from

this Stuff Pack to make it look good on adults, just so they're not left out either.

Celebration! Stuff
This is a nice Stuff Pack to help your Sims celebrate the important things in their lives. It comes with a huge amount of

content, making back-yard get-togethers, birthdays and wedding much better. You can get a variety of bithday cakes, some new

decorative stuff, and a huge amount of clothing. This Stuff Pack comes with a lot of content, and a lot of it has been played

with online, so you can have your celebrations much more realistic too.

Family Fun Stuff
Originally, all of this content was in the Open For Business Expansion Pack, but something made them take it out, and perhaps

that is obvious. It comes with a lot of strange content, you can have wardrobes shaped like a water-wave, or for some reason

you can dress the whole family in orange. For the movie-maker, this isn't a serious consideration, and the content should

only really be used for young children, as it would seem very unuaual having a pink, horse-shaped scultpure in your parents'

room. In the grand scheme of things, this Stuff Pack is only good for building up your collection.


I hope you've read it all, and I do hope I've helped anyone who was wondering what Expansion Pack / Stuff Pack to get for

making a movie.
Hope you have fun, and enjoy,
TrivialSim (bbbe99)

I would say

Open For Business =7
H&M Fashion Stuff = 6
Kitchen And Bath Stuff = 6
University = 6
Apartment Life = 5


I really, really want Seasons and Freetime. Nightlife seems cool because of the variety of cars and the dating system. Bon Voyage would be cool because of the beaches. I have no desire to have pets.

Since I've gotten apartment life it kinda changes the look of the game, like on the neighborhood screen it now has a place where it says things like "This will allow you to adjust weather for the neighborhood once you install Seasons" and that's just a constant reminder that I don't have seasons, which annoys me. haha

Here's my rating of all EPs and SPs. (I've got all of them but haven't installed M&G Stuff yet... :D)

EXPANSION PACKS

1. Seasons. Can you reject the snow? Also the mini-games and country furniture are good. Putting leftovers instead of throwing food away. The beautiful music also. It's simply the best!

2. University. I've always wanted my Sims to live alone freely, and this is the chance! (Also more time in an age group to max skills sooner). Influence makes Sims have fun torturing townies. And this is the ONLY EP which has all the music that I love! Go for Uni.

3. Apartment Life. So many improvement to Build mode that I can't resist! So many useful items in Buy mode that I must buy! How else can I say? The ceilings? Witches? Or Sims being killed by a cute bed? Definitely a great EP.

4. Open for Business. Now my Sims can finally open an art gallery! No more paintings in every wall tile. Also the Servo from TS1 and many good objects.

5. Nightlife. Cars? Dates? Yeah, the luxury has come! The objects are simply great. Also inventory and Turn on/offs. Vampires can bite you when you never expect them. But the music are simply remixes.

6. FreeTime. Hobby, hobby. It's good when your Sims has more leisure time, but not when it overwhelms the Want-Fear slots and make them forget everything else. The music is bad.

7. Pets. Sure, dogs and cats are cute. But you probably won't like random strays that spawn into your lot. The atomic objects are rarely used also. Pet interactions are far more limited compared to Unleashed. The only thing I fairly like is the music.

8. Bon Voyage. "Exotic Destinations". Of course, they spawn when you create a hood even if you don't create a destination. Furniture are bad except the Japanese ones. Little and bad music. Jewelery isn't a nice addition.

STUFF PACKS

1. IKEA Home Stuff. Simply because of the modernity and simplicity of the furniture!

2. Celebration! Stuff. Now my Sims can throw a proper formal wedding party. Nice dresses also.

3. Mansion & Garden Stuff. Ceiling fans and huge stairs. Also the roof slider and different flowers that none of the EP/SPs provided.

4. Happy Holiday Stuff. Bows and stars in the bedroom, Christmas trees in living room. Combined with Seasons, they're simply the best.

5. Glamour Life Stuff. Shiny furniture - all I always wanted. Now Sims can live the celebrity world too.

6. H&M Fashion Stuff. Stylish clothes and modern shop objects - what more can you wish?

7. Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff. New additions to the most important rooms, although the recolors are fairly limited.

8. Teen Style Stuff. Not really happy with this one. The only good objects are TV and stereo. A SP shouldn't have itself seperated into many themes, especially when there are only 60 objects.

9. Family Fun Stuff. Although children now have many more toys to play, the silly amount of walls added is a downpoint. And you can bet that I'm not happy when downloading the patch.

I hope that EAxis release some more SPs for TS2... So I can add them to this list! :P

Sorry, I was unaware that EA said they would release more SPs for Sims 2.. when/where did that come from? I was under the impression that everything for the game was dropped.

For reference, I have Uni, Nightlife, Pets, Seasons, and Freetime.

#1. Seasons. I haven't played many of its features so far, I've barely even touched gardening, but ... The sole reason I enjoy Sims 3 is for the gardening and fishing challenges. In every other area, I prefer Sims 2 in the long run. So... Sims 2 with gardening and fishing? No-brainer! What I HAVE experienced on the pack is excellent. There's some nice new items, I love the outerwear, and the new "features" are exciting without being annoying. More on this later.

#2. Nightlife. I almost consider this part of the basegame... I can't imagine doing without its features, and my sims don't usually date much. I haven't experimented with vampires yet, but I have a mind to do just that... It's not that this expansion pack is very creative, it's very similar to what Hot Date did for Sims 1 (Hot Date was my second favourite expansion pack there, too) but it just seems so vital. Plus I love that exercise sphere. So much.

#3. Freetime. And this one's floating between 2 and 3... Really, in terms of features, it would ordinarily be higher. I LOVE the hobbies, I LOVE the secret clubs, I love all the new activities and I love the new items.

I cannot stand, I cannot stand at all, how much attention-whoring these features have in-game. This is a problem Seasons cleverly avoided.
Experiencing an aspect of a hobby for the first time? BOOM PHONE CALL. And note that just about every single activity is hobby-related. Eating? Cuisine. Fixing the broken sink? Tinkering. Playing chess? Playing absolutely anything, actually? Games. I wish this game had a Caller ID mod... And that's not the only phone call. You get another when they get a tiny bit more interested, which is very easy to do with normal sim life, and then someone will ask if they want a magazine subscription, and then someone will barge into their house to hand them a membership card! So annoying!

Incidentally, is it even possible to have Free Time installed and have a sim that does NOT get a Cuisine membership card by the time they die? Without a bunch of cheats, anyway?

So while I loved all the features, I hated how the pack wouldn't STFU about them. Oh, and the surprise gift you get moving in? It was cool the first time. Not so cool for the other fifty.

#4. Pets. At first all I could say about this pack was how buggy it is. (Very.) Maybe I downloaded a fix? Because some of the really bad bugs aren't... hah... bugging me anymore. Others are, and that's frustrating, but really, I don't think this pack has enough features. The interactions with cats and dogs get repetitive within the first sim day, and you simply cannot keep an agressive pet in the same house as another pet -- even if you teach them both fully that fighting is wrong, they'll still fight! Total bullocks! This caused my best pet to run away...

But I like the cat/dog customization a lot, and although I think pet jobs are a silly idea, I may as well try them out some day.

#5. Uni. Briefly I wanted no expansion pack more than this one, because of its architectural options. But this is the worst offended of just not bringing enough to the game... and it's quite understandable. It's all about university life, but... when your sim's not at uni, you won't notice ANYTHING from this pack.

On the plus side, it brought in some kickin' punk hair and some really nice careers. I don't dislike uni as a pack; but the uni life is boring, excessively long, and way too easy.

Pets and Seasons, they complete the game the most... but I like them all the same except AL ant FT

FT flatout sucks
AL's only good feature are the Witches

Actually, they WEREN'T going to release some new SPs, they just said although Sims 3 has come out, they would not drop Sims 2. As long as I recall correctly :D

Very interesting idea for a thread! I didn't vote in the poll (since I couldn't find it!), but I am more than happy to share my thoughts on the various EPs and SPs! For starters, it's hard for me to pick just one favorite EP. They're all pretty good. My top five are Nightlife, Seasons, Pets, Bon Voyage and Freetime.

In Nightlife my favorite thing, hands down, is the fact that it allows sims to own their own car. It's beyond me why they didn't include that in the base game. I mean, unless you live in a big city (or you can't drive for whatever reason), you probably aren't going to be using taxis as your main form of transportation (and the Sims 2 neighborhoods seem to be very much suburbia rather than big city!)!

Virtually all of my sim families own cars, and if a lot is not big enough for at least a one car garage (even if a little remodeling is done to make the house a bit smaller), I usually won't even consider using it (on rare occasions I make an exception and use a lot that has room for a driveway but not a garage. But if the lot doesn't have room for even a driveway, forget it!).

In Seasons, my favorite thing is, well, the seasons. I like that it makes the game much more realistic weather-wise. I tend to coordinate the seasons in my game with the seasons in RL. So, for example, when it's summer in real life, it's summer in my game. My one exception is vacation neighborhoods. Since Twikkii Island is designed as tropical location, it's always summer there. In Three Lakes, it's usually fall or winter, since I invision a mountain location as having that type of weather. As for Takemizu Village, I just go with whatever I feel like at the time!

In Bon Voyage, my favorite things are vacations and honeymoons. I like that my sim couples can now go on proper honeymoons (and possibly come back with a little "souviner" if you catch my drift! ).

My favorite thing in Pets is the pets. When I first got it, I had to restrain myself from adding a dog or cat to every sim household! While I've heard horror stories about Pets, I personally have never experienced problems because of it. So take it from me, getting Pets does NOT mean you are doomed to a game full of problems!

Can you guess what my favorite thing about Freetime is? Yup, the hobbies and their related objects. I like that my sims can now do more hobby-wise than just paint, read, or play musical instruments. I also like that cooking now does something other than just keep sims nourished and, in some cases, make them fat.

As for the other EPs, I like them, too, but not quite as much as my top five. In particular I like that Apartment Life added the option for sims to have closets rather than dressers (although unfourtnately my sims cannot use closets due to a conflict with a dresser hack I have installed. I'm not willing to go without the dresser hack, so my poor sims have gotten used to the idea that they have to stick with dressers.).

That's another thing that I think should have been included with the base game. Yes, EAxis, most people have dressers, but most people have closets, too!

Moving on to the SPs....I don't have all of them yet (I'm still missing Happy Holiday Stuff, Glamour Life Stuff, and H&M Fashion Stuff), but of the ones I do have, Celebration Stuff and Kitchen and Bath Stuff have to be my favorites. As a huge romantic, having lots of stuff with which to plan the perfect wedding for my sims is right up my alley. The only thing I don't like is the wedding dresses that came with that SP (in fact, I actually like the bridesmaids' dresses a lot better!). Much too blah for my taste. I don't really like the wedding dress that came with the base game either, so I use custom wedding dresses.

With Kitchen and Bath Stuff, I like that I can finally give my sims some decent-looking kitchens and bathrooms. I also like the bathrobes that came with it. My more modest sims are glad that they now have an underwear option that doesn't involve them actually having to prance around in their underwear!

There aren't any SPs that I strongly dislike, but I was a bit underwhelmed by both Family Fun Stuff and Teen Style Stuff. The latter added hardly anything, and as for the former....I don't know what they were thinking when they chose the clothes that would come with it. Those kids pjs and dress-up clothes are cute, but the rest is just....ugh (especially those awful kids swimsuits!)!

I was also a bit underwhelmed by the Ikea Home Stuff SP, but for a different reason. Upon getting it and exploring the stuff that came with it, I realized that frankly, Ikea furniture is, for the most part, not my taste!

But perhaps my most interesting moment with an EP or SP was wth University. For the longest time, I swore to myself that I wouldn't get it. From what I could tell, it didn't add that much in the way of furnishings and clothing and stuff, and I couldn't really see myself spending that much time playing the colleges. Plus, I felt I could live without my sims going to college, and from what I'd read, Young Adult sims aren't that different from Adult sims.

Gradually, however, my resistance to Uni began to fade. First, I began to get curious about the Young Adults. Similar to Adults or not, I thought it might be fun to play them. Then I started being curious about what the colleges were like. And then I began getting annoyed that some of the CC I really wanted was stuff that I couldn't get....because it required ALL the EPs to work. So I had to pass it up all because of one little EP (I DID throw caution to the wind and get a few of them, figuring that since I was without just one of the EPs required the CC would still work okay. It did, but I didn't want to push my luck!)!

And then something happened that completely took me by surprise. Whereas before I was simply curious about a few things involving Uni but could live without it, suddenly I found that my stance on Uni had changed. I wanted that EP. So I got it......and guess how I have been spending my Sims 2 playing time lately? That's right, playing the colleges! I just can't get enough of them! Deciding to cave in and get Uni was the best decision regarding Sims 2 that I have ever made!

The expansions I have are:
Nightlife
Apartment Life
Celebration
Teen Style

And Pets but I lost it so its not installed on the laptop.

#1 Apartment Life
Pros
Shelves. I really culdn't live without shelves. Its realistic because houses in real life have shelves and its a good think to shove clutter upon to make the house looked 'lived in'
The new furniture. That gigantic television is he best thing ever. I have a habit of watching the telly like my sims, as I like all the shows that are on. I am yet to have any of my sims watch the yummy channel though lol.
APARTMENTS! This is seriously an awesome feature to add to your game, and I couldn't live without them. You can a wide range of apartments, from £800 trailers on trailer parks to £6,000 luxury suites in the big, shiny hotel/mansion places. Its fun to bash on the walls of loud neighbours when they have their music pumping out at volume 1,000.
MONEY ADVANTAGES!!!!!!!!! This is a majorly awesome feature to the game. Before, if you made a family of say 8 or so, you would still only have 20,000 for your family to buy the house and furnish it, so without cheats life woul be quite hard. But in apartment life, say if you create a family of 8, you could get up to £40,000 pounds as your familys starting income, which is enough to buy a nice house and throw some nice furniture into it.
I highly recommend you buy this EP!!
Cons
The only con I can think of is that if you have an already slow computer this EP is most likely to make your game run slow. Apartments were living hell on my old computer, as it used to take forever to navigate aoround the apartments. I now play it on my laptop and have absolutely no problems AT ALL! Its fast and fun to play.
#2 Celebration Stuff!
Pros
Wedding gear! Your sims can now have beautiful, weddings. Before, your sims couldn't have mush of a wedding because there wasn't any nice arches,or seats, or bottles of wine to have a toast. I love this EP and couldn't live without it beacuse of parties and weds. With this stuff pack you can throw the party of the century.
Smart suits and dresses! There are some really nice formal wear and dresses that come with this expansion, by far the nicest Maxis dresses made. There is also some nice hair, I especially love the one with the bob with flowers wrapped around it.
Cons
Some people may think this stuff pack is a waste of computer space beacause you don't use the stuff in it very often. Reconsider, as this stuff pack is a game enhancer and without it you couldn't throw good parties.

#3 Nightlife!
Pros
Cars! This is a cool addition to the game, and makes it incredibly realistic as most of us in real life own at least one car (we own three lol) The only bad thing is that if you don't have much cash your'e stuck with a minging old banger.
Pleasure items! Bowling alleys and pool tables boost your sims fun. The other items are okay, but IMO they are definetley not as nice as the ones in apartment life.
Dates! Your sims can now go out to have a meal or have soapy nights in with their love. Its a really nice dating system cause its now easy to have dream dates (I get dream almost every time)
VAMPIRES! I love the supernatural creatures, and vampires are my fave out of the bunch. They have some really cool icon poses and I laugh every time they flinch because of the light. Its hard to get your sims to be vampires though, because the only non-cheat non-item way is to fall in love with the countess who is also hard to hunt down.
Cons
The two cons I said above about the furniture and vamprism are the only cons I can think of. The furniture is pretty dissapointing (unless your sims are late night partiers with nothing better to do) but the pros still outweigh the cons.

#4 Teen Style Stuff
Pros
PROPER TEEN BEDROOMS yea they are quite nice. Maybe a little modern, but they are a nice feature to the game. Your teens can now have proper teenage bedrooms yay! I really love the new little television that comes with this game as its modern and cool.
SEXY T-SHIRTS The girl teenagers now have some really nice little tops to go with the small ripped shorts. This is a good addition to the people who are yet to discover custom content
Cons
The bedrooms and sweet clothes are all there really is. The stuff in the pack is a little too modern for me, I prefer exotic looking beds and old musty looking rugs to the hip, patterned teen ones.

#5 Pets
Pros
NEW PETTERS FOR YOU! There are some really sweet looking pets in this EP and I personally love the cats the most. The dogs are sweet aswell but some of the breeds have weird tiny eyes which creeps me out.
Cons
Many people say this EP makes their game buggy and slow. Myself, I didn't experience any of this except in the apartments.
Thats all you get You only get pets and pet related stuff in this pack, which is pretty boring in itself.
THEY WILL RUIN YOUR HOUSE! Pets destroy almost everythong you own, so whilst you are at work/school your beloved pet at home is destroying your £5,000 sofa. Unless you have enough time to train your pets and don't care about your sms going into needs faliure, they will continue to destroy your house.

I hoped that helped some of decide about expansion packs

Buy your cats scratching posts and your dogs chew toys and they will not destroy your furniture. If you buy a pet at the pet store, you can design it, so you can change the eyes to a size you don't find creepy.

There is a male vampire, so you have two sources of biting.

I think all the EPs are good, if you're willing to learn how play them. That said, I am resisting buying OfB, BV, and FT, because I've got more to do with my sims than I have time for with the EPs I've got!

^Lol on the old computer I brought all that stuf for the pets but they still went and destroyed our sofa. I meant the premade breeds before you mod them etc. they always have midgetised eyes.I always change that, however, though it still annoys me like crazy. In a way, I still miss my petz disc but if I had limited space on my comp it wouldn't be one I would install. Its only me who uses this laptop and its just got emulator/sims/petz junk on it lol.

Lol I did once come across the male vampire but I was playing with a man....and I decided that my bloke was going to refrain from being gay cause he had a pregnant wife at home....I lost that when I uninstalled AL and Pets on the old comp beacsuse I couldn't find the gifts.
I'll probably get Seasons, Uni and OFB from Amazon tonight, I have enough mons so I'll ask my Dad to by the stuff and I'll give him the money lol. Its been well over a year since I last brought an EP

I don't have any SPs, I don't really see the point of buying them when I can download prettier things from MTS for example.
I'll just comment on the EPs I do own (I don't have FT, Pets and OFB)
Nightlife :
Of course, like everyone else I love it! The cars, vampirism, downtown, dates etc... make the game so much more interesting!
Apartment Life :
I like it, it brings a new dimension to the game. Plus witches/warlocks are totally awesome
Bon Voyage :
I don"t really use it. I only had 1 vacation trip since I had the EP. I hate loading time more than anything so I don't usually go on vacations with my sim families
Seasons :
At first I was sceptic but I really love it! It's really great to play with the weather and stuff. Also gardening and fishing is a lot of fun
University :
At first I loved it since I am in college so I thought it was fun. But now I am bored, I find it too long. Most of the time my sims fill in their grade in less that 2 days so after that I get bored. Plus ALL my teens have a want to go to college so I am tired of sending them all so they end up staying in the uni sim bin forever

You don't need to have your sim fall in love with them. They just need to be friends with a high relation score. I read that it helps if your sim has high logic points. Don't know if that's true, but the only two vampires I have (Nina C. and Mortimer G.) both had high logic and it was pretty easy to make them vamps. Too easy for Nina, because I wasn't expecting it.

---
OFB: I never really appreciated it until doing the Build a City challenge. Making businesses and running home businesses really opened up the game play for me. If I could only have one EP it would be this. (I can't get Seasons until I get a better computer, but from what I've read about it, Seasons would probably be my essential -- but until then, it's OFB.)

Nightlife: I love sending my sims downtown, playing dates, and vampires. But I have Double Deluxe so I don't know what Sims would be like without it.

Apartment Life: I adore the witches and I also really like playing apartments. 'Course that's for the torture aspect because I usually make flophouses, council housing, and tiny trailers for my sims. Oh - and the garbage chute. Every sim home has the apartment garbage chute. They complain at first, but never having to take garbage out ever again is worth it.

The cons are that witches showing up at community lots cause a huge drag on my laptop and the evil witch leaves cockroaches at my businesses.



University: I had to learn to love playing Uni, but even without sending my sims to college, I loved it for the musical instruments and the 'play together' function.

The con is that without mods every teen will want to go to college and cry if they don't.

Pets: This isn't essential, but I think it fills out the play a bit. The con is that it seems to flood the wants and fears and I hate EP's that take over the game like that. I actually like that they destroy furniture and need to be trained -- even though my sim lost a very nice bed because I didn't stop the pack leader in time.

Don't have Seasons, BV or FT.

Stuff Packs
The only stuff packs I don't have are the holiday one and Glamour Life.

Ikea: My favorite for inexpensive modern items that my sims love.

Mansion and Garden: Lots of fun over-the-top pieces and the roofinator thing to easily modify roof slope is great.

I don't know if any of the other stuff packs are essential because there's so much nice custom content.

Same here! I never noticed the changes except for the downtown place...all the dating and stuff is just so normal to me.

Thanks for pointing that out! Lol my married sir decided that she was a hard hitting 3 lightning bolts so he really had a major crush on her.... thats the best part. I influenced her to go and bite everyone in the lot and she did :D

'K, so just yesterday, since I was at Walmart and they had a copy of it, I finally broke down and bought Apartment Life. I installed it last night and mucked about with it a bit before I fell asleep. (With the game running and my laptop on my lap, no less.) I haven't completely explored all of its aspects yet, but I thought I'd write down some initial thoughts for other people who might be thinking about buying it. Some of its features -- like ceilings and walking to work/school, both of which I love -- I got because I got Mansions & Gardens before Apartment Life, but of the AL stuff that, AFAIK, isn't in M&G:

--It has some nice new hairstyles. (Although I'm really not really wild about Maxis's colors; I'm hoping there are some nice retextures out there...) There is also quite a bit of new clothing. Most of the styles aren't entirely what I like, but I think they would most likely appeal to younger folks than middle-aged me.

--I find myself liking the new Buy Mode objects in general. There is some nice upscale furniture and deco, some fun shabby-chic Bohemian stuff, and I kind of like the "Gearhead" stuff, too; it will be fun to use to decorate the houses/rooms of Tinkering male Sims, I think, of which I seem to have a lot, lately. And the playground stuff will be very nice, for me and the way I play, on community lots; I plan to update my hoods' parks when next I play "for real," so that kids will have something other than swing sets to play on. Oh, and the big aquarium is fun...and kind of mesmerizing to watch, like a real aquarium of large size. Oh, and closets and their woohoo interaction...although I do think the closet doors are stupidly expensive. $1,000 for closet doors seems a bit steep to me, given that the upscale dressers in the game cost a lot less than that. (Hell, you can buy a CAR in the game for less than that...)

-- It appears to have a ton of nice new Build Mode stuff, too, which is always a plus for me, both to use as-is and to use as a "base" to create CC. I haven't systematically gone through all of it yet, but I liked a lot of what I did run across and/or thought that it had potential, from a creating point-of-view. It has lots of new walls and floors and some very nice-looking doors and windows. And the spiral stairs, which aren't too exciting to me, since I've had CC ones in my game for a long time. But the AL ones are nice-looking.

-- Neighborhood deco! I always wanted alleyways and such... and there they are. I now have plans for the business district of one of my 'hoods...

-- I resisted buying AL for a long time for two reasons. One was that I was afraid that the painstakingly-constructed hack cocktail in my up-to-Freetime game wouldn't work anymore, but that fear went away because when I got M&G I had to update my "big hacks" like ACR and Inteen to AL editions anyway, and my older, un-updated stuff all seemed to work just fine. (Including Community Time, thank God!) But the other reason was because I just wasn't really interested in housing Sims in apartments. From what I'd read, it was sort of like playing the dorms at Uni...and that does seem to me to be the case, with just a few differences. I haven't entirely come to a firm judgment on the whole apartment issue yet. I DO like it that, since I don't let every Sim keep their $20,000 hand-out, it gives my single Sims (both the poorer working-class stiffs and my loaded swinging-single Romance Sims) a living option that offers on-lot social opportunities and that can be cheaper, if necessary. And it's quicker for me because I don't have to build or take up a lot with housing for Sims who'll stay single or at least childless...although I don't have too much control over the latter, really, given that I let ACR run wild. I DON'T like it that, although the apartment shows furnished and deco'ed in Build mode, when rented everything but the kitchen/bath fixtures and the closets go away. It threw me for a bit; I thought something was wrong until I finally realized the logic of it. Still bugs me, though. Everything else...Well, I haven't played enough yet to figure out whether or not I like it. I have a suspicion that my ultimate judgment of apartments will be an apathetic "Meh"...but who knows? I thought that about gardening and fishing from Seasons, too, and I turned out to really like them, so...Yeah.

-- I haven't delved into building my own apartment building yet; I just copied five or six buildings from Belladonna Cove to the lot bin and then plopped 'em in my testing 'hood to play around with them with some test Sims. And I think it's kind of funny that most of them come with playgrounds but hardly any of the pre-made apartments on those lots (except the trailer park, oddly enough) are large enough to accommodate kids + parents. Weird.

-- The concept of uncontrollable roommates sounds like fun (in the "recipe for potential disaster" sense of the word; I'm guessing they will work like pets), and I'm looking forward to trying it out...if I can find an apartment that's big enough to house two not-romantically-involved people, that is. :\

-- I haven't messed with the witches at all yet, but am looking forward to doing so. I used to dislike supernaturals, so I wasn't interested in witches, either. That was another reason why AL didn't interest me when it was released. But now that I've tweaked how I play supernaturals, I really like them. So, I'm looking forward to having a new type to throw into the mix.

--The addition of this EP, since I now have all but Bon Voyage, made my game run slower. Not slowly enough to be annoying to me, but loading times did increase by a noticeable amount. I don't think this is entirely AL's "fault," though. I think it's merely a consequence of an older machine, a lot of EPs and a few SPs, the fact that I keep a spreadsheet and genealogy database software open at the same time to track my playing, and, currently, too much CC that wants pruning, particularly the "get rid of hairs that I never use/don't like in game project" that I've been putting off...oh, forever. But I could be wrong. It does add a lot of stuff, so maybe it is partly the EP's "fault." But that would also be understandable, since it does add a lot of stuff. You can't have your cake and eat it, too, after all.

-- I like the jumping rope thing, since it gives Sims, including children, an entirely free Body-skill building option. (Yes, I know you can work out to TVs/radios, but I build small houses with small rooms for playing purposes, and there isn't always room to work out...plus, you have to have/buy a TV/radio, and not all of my Sims get those.)

--I'm really liking the reputation thing, I think, although I frankly don't yet understand how it works/how it's accumulated. But one of my test Sims already got "free samples" of things (like an expensive TV) from a friend of hers. I'm assuming this is because she somehow managed to accumulate a high reputation just while I was testing stuff with her and her husband and their friends. It reminds me of the dating gifts from NL, only without the dating. (Which is a good thing, for me, since I'm currently bored of dating.) Another testing Sim got a discount on Buy Mode stuff and another got a higher pay rate at his job, all I think because of reputation, so those were very nice, too. I thought reputation was going to be like influence from Uni, which I hardly ever use, so I was "meh" about reputation...but it's not the same, and I think I really like it.

-- I like all of the new interactions, and there are a lot of them, more than any EP that I have ever added. I mean, I suppose they'll become ho-hum after a while, but it was fun to watch my test Sim go to a community lot and get a bunch of "Tough Handshakes" from people he knew...and some he didn't know at all. And the new cuddles and kisses are all adorable...although they, too, might become ho-hum after a while. But for now, they make me go, "Awwwwww!" in an embarrassingly squee-ish sort of way.

--Finally: Being Able To Move Stuff Up and Down on Walls = YAY! :D

And that's all that I've discovered so far. Overall, I like the EP quite well, and think it was money well spent. I think that in the end it will become one of my top three, along with Open For Business (my favorite) and Seasons...although I think it's kind of ironic that its "main attraction" -- apartments -- is probably going to be the thing that I'm most "meh" about.

ETA: 3/14/11: Have played some more, have some more notes.

--New music! ...Well, actually, I'm not sure if this came with AL or M&G (which I got via the "Fun With Pets" collection), but I have new Build Mode/Buy Mode/Neighborhood View/Loading Screen music. I don't always play with the game's music on; by default, I have it turned off. But I guess installing AL turned it back on again. Since then I've left it on to hear the new tunes. I like them. Once they become ho-hum, I'll turn the music off again. But, like I said, I'm not sure if this came with AL or with M&G/FwP.

--I had some sort of issue wherein when I went to load my game, it seemed to have forgotten that AL was installed, although the files were all on the hard drive...I think. Weird. (And probably my computer's fault, not the game's.) So I uninstalled/reinstalled AL, and then it worked fine. The really weird thing is that, once I did that, the game runs a lot better. In my initial notes, I had said that things were lagging, but now they aren't. Not noticeably, anyway. I guess something didn't install right the first time, maybe? Well, whatever the case, I haz no noticeable lag anymoar, except...

--Had my first witch appearance while I had one of my families visit their neighborhood's rec center. It was the Infallibly Good one. And her cat. There was lag while she appeared, which I had read happens, but it wasn't too much for me, maybe 30 seconds? (And for the record, my laptop = 7 years old, running WinXP, 2GB RAM, 128MB video card, and I have no clue what its processor speed is. So it's certainly not top-of-the-line now, although it was when I bought it. :lol ) My rec center lot is big, too, 5x5 with lots of stuff on it, so perhaps the lag will be less on a smaller lot. And then once she was fully materialized or whatever...she went swimming in the rec center pool. I thought it was amusing. That's the only contact with magic that I've had yet. I just haven't gotten 'round to messing with it.

--The new Peek-a-Boo interaction with the toddlers is adorable! I actually had the option added to the pie menu when I installed M&G/FwP...but it was broken, and I was terribly disappointed. Installing AL fixed it, and it's sooooooo cuuuuuuuuute! I can watch them do it all day.

--Likewise, the new skills (Fire Safety, etc.) that can be studied I also got with M&G/FwP, but they were only accessible from individual books lying around, not from the bookcase. That was kind of a pain. Also, Sims didn't roll wants to study the new skills, either. But installing AL fixed both those issues, too. Yay!

--Since I have now used it, I can confirm that the playground stuff is really nice. It's especially nice that children have some children-only fun stuff to do now. And that they can build Body skill while doing it.