The Sims 2 - Expansion Packs

[Jack_Batty]

I didn’t want to totally hijack this thread into Jack time, so I figured I’d start a new one … and away we go:

I’ve recently gotten back into The Sims 2 – mostly because I loaded so many cheat/sex patches that the game stopped running and I had to reload if I wanted to play it. Normally I would have written off a years old game as opposed to reloading, but I went ahead with it anyway. Mostly I just love building really cool houses – I’ve got one with a sunken living room, and one with a raised living room (that one wasn’t easy) and I just started working on a house with living space on one side, sleeping space on the other and a second story colonnade kind of thing to go in between the two all with a big ass pool between them on the ground floor … but I digress.

The thing is though, like many other PC games I buy, I never pulled the trigger on any expansion packs. Now I’m thinking, what the hell, may as well get them as they are cheap now, and I’ve got some loose change to throw around.

I just don’t know if it’s worth it. What expansions do you all have? Are any worth picking up at this late stage of the game? Any more recommended then others? What say you?

[Elyanna]

I have all of the expansion packs, and none of the stuff packs.

University: Playing a sim through college can get long and dull; I’ve never had a sim get less than an 4.0 because getting the grade is so easy. College is more fun if you get them involved in as many romances as possible and then watch it all blow up when a cow mascot you’ve never seen before flirts with your sim in front of half his/her lovers at a party.

University also adds “lifetime wants” which are life goals for your sims like reaching the top of a certain career path, or having 10 kids, or have 20 lovers at once. This adds some extra challenge to the game if you desire to pursue these goals. Also, zombies.

My rating: B+

Nightlife: One of the best packs, imo, adding chemistry, dates, the pleasure aspiration, the grilled cheese aspiration (which will have “eat 200 grilled cheese sandwiches” as a lifetime want if you have Uni), cars, and the downtown area. And vampires.

A-

Open For Business: Robots, elevators, crafting benches, and of course, your own business selling anything you please to micromanage. This is probably my least used expansion pack because it sort of requires you to travel to the business lot, unless you have a home business, and I travel as little as possible because of the long, long loading screens. Eh.

C+

Pets: Adds pets (cat or dog, mainly) and werewolves. Get if you want pets, skip if you don’t want pets. Probably the most disappointing since it adds nothing but pets.

B-

Seasons: No more eternal sunshine! My personal favorite. It adds weather and all its joys–raking leaves, hypothermia, gardening, fishing, heatstroke, death by lightning, and plant sims. Now to kill someone you just have to lock them outside–something’ll get 'em.

And six new careers.

A+

Bon Voyage: I am again biased against this pack like I am against Business–for its main feature, you must travel. It adds three vacation areas where you get vacation memories, and also bigfoot. It adds little otherwise, however.

B-

FreeTime: Adds 10 hobbies, three new craft stations, and five careers. It’s okay. Not much to say about it. Get something else first.

B

Apartment Life: It adds witches and warlocks, social groups, apartments, and reputation. I’ve only had this one two weeks, so I’m still getting to know it. Having neighbors in the apartments has been a hoot so far… too early to tell whether I’ll get tired of it. I’ve only just begun playing a warlock. He’s mid-level in power, and so far none of the spells are all that interesting. Probably because he’s a good warlock. I should’ve made him evil. I have yet to discover the key to the social groups.

B+?

So I recommend them in this order: Seasons, Nightlife, Uni, Apartment life, and then it’s a bit meh from there.

[Jack_Batty]

Very nice wrap-up.

So am I to understand that one does not rely on any other … besides the main game? That is, I could load any one of them next, first, last, whatever, and I don’t have to have any prerequisite expansion, as it were?

[Elyanna]

@Jack_Batty

Very nice wrap-up.

So am I to understand that one does not rely on any other … besides the main game? That is, I could load any one of them next, first, last, whatever, and I don’t have to have any prerequisite expansion, as it were?

For the most part, yes. Some features from later expansion packs rely on features from earlier packs, however. For example, in apartment life, if you have a witch sim, they can call up a cat familiar if you have the Pets pack. But you can get them out of order without having to uninstall anything, which is nice, because Sims 1 wasn’t that way, and it was awful.

Edit: Oh, and some packs add some additional building features like different types of roof. I think seasons adds those. All packs add some furniture.

[Skywatcher]

@Jack_Batty

I could load any one of them next, first, last, whatever, and I don’t have to have any prerequisite expansion, as it were?

Only that you really should install the most recent one last. If you don’t, it’ll prompt you to do so.

[Sublight]

@Elyanna

This is probably my least used expansion pack because it sort of requires you to travel to the business lot, unless you have a home business, and I travel as little as possible because of the long, long loading screens. Eh.

My initial reaction to OFB was the same as yours for the same reason, although I really liked the concept. While I realize that ‘get a better computer’ is probably the least helpful advice one can give, it made a huge difference in this case. My old machine chugged and groaned to the extent that I gave up on getting any more expansion packs for fear it simply wouldn’t be able able to load at all (it was taking 15-20 minutes from clicking the program icon to gameplay). I bought a new machine this past fall and after transferring all my thousands of sims flies and downloads, it takes only a minute to start playing and moving between lots takes less than 30 seconds. This has made Open For Business a lot more fun.

[Darkhold]

@Elyanna

I have all of the expansion packs, and none of the stuff packs.

University: Playing a sim through college can get long and dull; I’ve never had a sim get less than an 4.0 because getting the grade is so easy. College is more fun if you get them involved in as many romances as possible and then watch it all blow up when a cow mascot you’ve never seen before flirts with your sim in front of half his/her lovers at a party.

University also adds “lifetime wants” which are life goals for your sims like reaching the top of a certain career path, or having 10 kids, or have 20 lovers at once. This adds some extra challenge to the game if you desire to pursue these goals. Also, zombies.

My rating: B+

University itself is boring beyond belief. I enjoy the extra ‘want’ slots you get for graduating though.

Nightlife: One of the best packs, imo, adding chemistry, dates, the pleasure aspiration, the grilled cheese aspiration (which will have “eat 200 grilled cheese sandwiches” as a lifetime want if you have Uni), cars, and the downtown area. And vampires.

A-

We’re a total 180 on this one. I don’t really think I use anything out of nightlife

Open For Business: Robots, elevators, crafting benches, and of course, your own business selling anything you please to micromanage. This is probably my least used expansion pack because it sort of requires you to travel to the business lot, unless you have a home business, and I travel as little as possible because of the long, long loading screens. Eh.

C+

I have one word for you…snapdragons. Ok more then one word the Robots are great to play with as they lack some of the need bars of other sims. They also regenerate energy extremely quickly but the real winner in this Xpack is if you craft to the highest level of floral making you can make Snapdragons which periodically give any nearby sim a boost to all their need bars (except for energy) making them insanely useful. Put a couple near a baby crib and you never have to feed the thing. A couple next to your bed and your sims wake up maxed out on all their attributes a couple next to wherever you have your sim spend a long time at (say in front of an easel) they can stay there all day.

Pets: Adds pets (cat or dog, mainly) and werewolves. Get if you want pets, skip if you don’t want pets. Probably the most disappointing since it adds nothing but pets.

B-

Eh pets are cute to play with but you’re right in the fact the don’t add all that much to the game.

Seasons: No more eternal sunshine! My personal favorite. It adds weather and all its joys–raking leaves, hypothermia, gardening, fishing, heatstroke, death by lightning, and plant sims. Now to kill someone you just have to lock them outside–something’ll get 'em.

And six new careers.

A+

Decent pack you also forgot to mention they get boosts during certain seasons i.e. in Fall they get study boosts in summer (I think) they get relationship boosts. Gardening was fun in that you can make different drinks with the fruit like OJ to cure a cold.

Bon Voyage: I am again biased against this pack like I am against Business–for its main feature, you must travel. It adds three vacation areas where you get vacation memories, and also bigfoot. It adds little otherwise, however.

B-

This added the most to the game for me but I’m pretty goal focused in the sims so I just had to have my families rush out and get all the vacation memories.

FreeTime: Adds 10 hobbies, three new craft stations, and five careers. It’s okay. Not much to say about it. Get something else first.

B

I think this one is pretty bad. Aside from being able to build your own car from a junker it’s boring and adds nothing.

Apartment Life: It adds witches and warlocks, social groups, apartments, and reputation. I’ve only had this one two weeks, so I’m still getting to know it. Having neighbors in the apartments has been a hoot so far… too early to tell whether I’ll get tired of it. I’ve only just begun playing a warlock. He’s mid-level in power, and so far none of the spells are all that interesting. Probably because he’s a good warlock. I should’ve made him evil. I have yet to discover the key to the social groups.

B+?

So I recommend them in this order: Seasons, Nightlife, Uni, Apartment life, and then it’s a bit meh from there.

I haven’t done anything with apartment life. I should check with the wife this always was more her game then mine.

[Wile_E]

The big problem with University is that they don’t get any days off, they have to attend school every day, which isn’t very realistic or helpful in getting them to do anything else. Also, sometimes the final exam falls at some ridiculous time of day, like the middle of the night.

I stopped at Pets, then my old computer died and I can’t play it on my Vista laptop. Well, I’m pretty sure I can’t, haven’t wanted to bother installing all of it to find it won’t work. I can’t play without cheats either, it’s just too boring and not as easy to torment my sims in the way I would like when they don’t obey me. But I’ve been missing it lately.

[Grumman]

@Wile_E

Also, sometimes the final exam falls at some ridiculous time of day, like the middle of the night.

Been there, done that.

[Elyanna]

@Sublight

My initial reaction to OFB was the same as yours for the same reason, although I really liked the concept. While I realize that ‘get a better computer’ is probably the least helpful advice one can give, it made a huge difference in this case. My old machine chugged and groaned to the extent that I gave up on getting any more expansion packs for fear it simply wouldn’t be able able to load at all (it was taking 15-20 minutes from clicking the program icon to gameplay). I bought a new machine this past fall and after transferring all my thousands of sims flies and downloads, it takes only a minute to start playing and moving between lots takes less than 30 seconds. This has made Open For Business a lot more fun.

Yeah, I used to play it on a 2005 laptop; I could eat a ten course meal in the time it took to load. Now I have a much better desktop, and the loading times are better, but I still don’t travel much. I think it’s become more habit than anything. I’m stuck in my ways.

@Darkhold

I have one word for you…snapdragons. Ok more then one word the Robots are great to play with as they lack some of the need bars of other sims. They also regenerate energy extremely quickly but the real winner in this Xpack is if you craft to the highest level of floral making you can make Snapdragons which periodically give any nearby sim a boost to all their need bars (except for energy) making them insanely useful. Put a couple near a baby crib and you never have to feed the thing. A couple next to your bed and your sims wake up maxed out on all their attributes a couple next to wherever you have your sim spend a long time at (say in front of an easel) they can stay there all day.

Yeah, snapdragons. I used to play with them a lot. Then I realized what little challenge there was in the game was gone. Every sim could be a perfect over-achiever, and I don’t like them that way. Now I use snapdragons sparingly, to taste.