How would you rank the Sims 3 expansions?

1- World Adventures - Not only because it introduced a way to step outside of the norm in game-play by adding the vacation/adventure locations. The objects which came with this pack made it possible to take game-play in a new direction while back in the home world.

2- Ambitions
3- Pets
4- Seasons
5- Showtime
6- Supernaturals
7- University Life
8- Into The Future
9- Late Night
10- Island Paradise

11- Generations - Although it has beautiful objects, this expansion has no use for me. I prefer a more 'organic' line of natural progression for my simulations. Forced events such as: Driving Lessons, Prom, Mid-Life Crisis and other events are more of a time-consuming hindrance to my game-play (and my Sim's development) than a positive addition.

1. Pets
So many adorable details, like cats fishing and actually bringing sims their catch (sometimes) or my horse raiding the neighbor's garden (with my sim still sitting on it).

2. Ambitions
I can't say no to freelance (or at least flexible shedule) careers or to more crafting options, and also love the world a lot.

3. World Adventures
Takes much work to make into a vacation world and the tomb gameplay is about the opposite of my freeform playstyle. But on the other hand nectar making, martial arts and photography are just too good, so even though this is my least liked pack, I in no way dislike it.

I only have these three packs, so the rest of the ratings are "educated guesses":

4. Island Paradise (interested in buying sometime)
5. Into the Future (interested in buying sometime)
6. Supernatural
7. Showtime
8. Seasons
9. Late Night
10. University Life
11. Generations

Order that I rank my Sims 3 EPs and why I prefer them ranked higher.

1. Seasons - I know it doesn't do anything much other than add weather and festivals, but I can't play a single game without having Seasons in the game or it just doesn't feel realistic.
2. Supernatural - I play a lot with occults (werewolves) or I'd have to be changing the Options.ini in terms of lifespan every single time I played. Might explore witches too...
3. Ambitions - just have to have my det packs and I love the self-employment aspect of it too.
4. Pets - can't play without having a dog, it's like a built in wealth-cheat.
5. University Life - easily one of the best EPs that I've had. I can send my sims to University for two in-game weeks and have them party or be studious.
6. World Adventures - I use these worlds for holidays for my sims; barely use the tomb exploration - but it's something I might get into it.
7. Into the Future - Allows me to use some of the cool stuff that the pack has (especially if I'm playing an apocalypse legacy)
8. Generations - Legacies are long for me so I tend to prefer narrative stories rather than playing a legacy the way that the game sets it up.
9. Island Paradise - the world may be bugged but it has some pretty nice add-ons. I like the sharks and the diving.
10. Late Night - This was a ho-hum pack for me, other than the bars and the piano (the only other instrument I use often is the violin (which is a store item)
11. Showtime - Asides from the Katy Perry marketing tie-in, I have absolutely no interest in the careers, The only thing that interested me in the pack was the banana tree; the plantable. That's right, I got a $20 expansion pack for ONE plantable.

Supernatural - I love Supernaturals, and there is so much included and so much to do in this pack.
World Adventures - Love the items, and the tombs and all the worlds.
Ambitions - Self employed careers, I love that.
Late Night - Awesome world + vampires and clubs.
University Life - I like the items that came with this one, and the fact that everyone can go to uni not just a certain age bracket.
Seasons - I like the weather, it makes the game more interesting even on just a visual level.
Island Paradise - For this, and ITF they had an awesome idea , but the execution was a bit... urgh. I like them though because they're different and imaginative.
Into the Future - Above.
Showtime - I never bought this pack on principle because of Simport, but I was given it as a gift. Over these years I've mellowed toward it and I love the world when all the career stuff is stripped out of it.
Pets - I am an animal lover in real space, but I mod all animals out of my sims game except minor pets. They make the game a lag-fest otherwise.
Generations - Pfft shouldn't even be called an EP. It's basically a SP with a set of movie tools no one ever seems to remember to use half the time.

1: Seasons, because, well, it has weather in it. And weather is a thing that is always there.. I always thought it was unusual that every day was a sunny day ever since I first started playing the sims. And it helps to give a feel that all the towns I play in are in different locations with different climates.

As for the rest, I can't really rank them. I bought a bunch of expansion packs when they were on sale, and installed them all at once, so I haven't played with packs individually to get a feel for them. But I think.... I will try..

2. Late Night will be second on my list, because of bars, and the opportunity to have sims play in bands. I can undestand why sim bands won't have vocalists, but I wish they had more instruments to choose from (where is the electric guitar?)

3. Um.. pets? I just installed it so I haven't really played with it yet, but I can see that it can be a fun addition.

4. Supernatural, only because I can use it for story telling, but most of my worlds will be like real worlds were magic doesn't exist.

5. Ambitions - Its cool to give my sims more opportunities, but I probably won't be using the stylist career. :P

6. University Life - Sending sims to university can be cool, but it can also be a bit repetitive.

7. Generations - what did it do, besides add a stroller, a cane, a video camera that doesn't work and that annoying imaginary friend thing that I will only use once?

That's all I have installed.

I'm always struggling with ranking stuff like this, which means my vote is a bit random and may change the next day. I'd rather sort expansions into groups, whether I really need them, have mixed feelings about them or don't care much about them. Today, I seem to prefer the expansions that give you a break from normal play :lol: .

Love them:

1. World Adventures. I wasn't really convinced I would like this in the beginning, but it turned out to be one of my most used and beloved expansions. Sometimes, you just need some time off - like in real life. Shang Simla is so pretty, and Al Simhara has the best tombs. With Traveler, I can bring the whole family and have some "normal" vacation. I also love the skills that came with this one.

2. University Life. Getting a degree can get formulaic and boring you say? True. But that system is set up so you can abuse it, so just do it. Best to go there with a sim who doesn't know anything (ironically, very skilled sims have a hard time at university) and can just scrape enough money together to enroll for two terms with a single 6 credit course (forget about the scholarship, it's meaningless). Then go wild, get skills, fulfill your life-time wish, get partners, even get rich. I love the sims there. I also use the furniture and clothes all the time. And the bowling alley. Did I mention two more traits for your sims? Yes, please.

3. Supernatural. I like the new stuff for vampires, but especially witches. Many of my sims are witches, at least the long-lived ones :smile: . It's just so useful. I don't really use fairies and werewolves though. No interest. Alchemy is awesome. Moonlight Falls is a lovely town, although I always have difficulties to find my way there. Overall, I love it.

4. Into the Future. Yeah, this is kind of the odd one out. The world can get boring after a while, but I had lots of fun there and sometimes have the family just relax in one of those houses over there. OL looks just great. I liked experimenting with plumbots. However, the main reason I rank this this high is the stuff I use all the time in my normal game. Transparent ceilings or, in other worlds, functioning greenhouses without store stuff? Gardening mats for greenhouses that aren't annoying? Actual functioning cafeterias without the need for store stuff? Yes, thank you.

Try to love them. :lol:

5. Ambitions. Ah, the consignment store, the mainstay that keeps my economy flowing. And some careers that suck up all your time and are best reserved for singles. I haven't done all of them, and I'm not sure I ever finished any except ghost hunters and firefighters. Oh, the bugs. I don't care for careers that need you to switch into editing modes, and I'll probably never do those. Simbots are funny, but need some tunings to make them less annoying. Twinbrook grew on me. Yes, the sims there are ugly, but the town is great for stories.

6. Generations. This gives some essential things to do for your kids and teens, and it's sometimes fun to do. Mid-life crises can be fun, too. I like to use some of the pre-made buildings. I sometimes rant about IF's, but I use them all the freaking time. Then again, I look at all the stuff I have switched off with Retuner because it's annoying. That pathetic scolding system, anyone?

Mixed feelings:

7. Late Night. This is hard to rate for me, because I started my journey into The Sims 3 with the Starter Pack (base game, Late Night and High-End Loft Stuff, plus some stuff from the store), so Bridgeport is my personal Sunset Valley. I love the bars and the look of the city. I still love the breath-taking look of it from across the river when you look out of a house there. Still, there are too many bars for too few people, they break after a while, the elevators are annoying and break all the time, NPC's get constantly stuck in the high-rises... Yeah, I see that I mostly rant about the city. The bars are a great addition to any town though, so that's kind of essential. In small doses though.

8. Seasons. Yes, the game may feel somewhat incomplete without them, but I don't think this was that well done. Without Tempest, I'd probably just switch Seasons off, given it's often non-stop thunderstorms for days during spring and autumn. Also, gardening is more or less forced indoors. I have banned deciduous trees from my families' lots. I don't care much for most of the holidays, but leisure day is kind of nice (the one day of the year sims use the pool without being forced). I love the snow in winter though, it's pretty and fun. The festival lots are a good addition.

Don't care

9. Showtime. It's fun to watch once or twice, but I never did a complete career from this expansion. The game is too much in love with these careers. Things are buggy (empty stages, anyone? Proprietors who need to be reset, anyone?). Love the genies, though. I also use one of the beds all the time. Lots of cool clothes. I've never used the world, so the rating may change.

10. Island Paradise. This is one of the unfair votes. Yeah, sorry, but I never used it so far. Maybe I should and get to love it, but that hasn't happened yet.

11. Pets. Ugh. I love pets in real life, but Sims3 pets are particularly needy. I went through raising cats and dogs in-game once and decided I'd never do it again. My sims still have pets sometimes, but the cats must be independent and at least two to keep their socials in check, and I just cheat their traits to something manageable. I mostly use the expansion for minor pets. They are quite fun, and birds are the best thing a witch can have in their pocket (they don't escape and double the speed they learn spells). So yes, I keep this active for my witches.


That's the ranking for today, but really, I could even have put Ambitions on the number 1 spot and Generations on 2. Or rank Late Night higher, when I'm especially in love with the lights of the city. In the end, ranking like that are mostly meaningless and just a glimpse of my current state of mind, but that's the fun thing about it: You can always discover something new every day :smile: .

For me it is:

1. Seasons - I just feel like the game is incomplete without it. I like my sims taking part in seasonal activities. I'm pretty into gameplay involving gardening, cottage life, self sufficiency etc, so I feel like this pack complements it nicely and allows my sims to live in tune with the seasons.

2. Late Night - if I'm not playing out a cottagecore dream, then I'm playing as a young professional trying to make it in the city. Half my games take place in apartments. I feel like cities and apartments are generally missing from other sims worlds. Also love the different kinds of bars. Not a big fan of the careers, and I always opt out of the celebrity system.

3. World Adventures - I like my sims getting to take honeymoons in France, or I send the more adventurous ones to Egypt. Also good for family vacations. To be honest, I mostly rate this so highly because it enables Twallan's Traveler mod, which is game changing for vacationing to any world. I also like that it adds a few more recipes to the sims 3 from around the world.

4. Supernatural - I don't play with supernatural sims most of the time, but I do play with witches from time to time. I just feel like this pack is super full of content - we get 5 new life states and heaps of cool furniture, a nice world, some cool recipes (I like the ghost pepper recipes in particular), and alchemy is a pretty nice skill.

5. University Life - this adds to the story for me. I also like that it gives my young adults a bit of extra time to become proficient in skills and get ahead in their careers. I also like the option to have roommates, particularly when I'm playing with broke young adult sims in the city - feels realistic. I do feel like the process of getting a degree - going to class, doing homework - can be a bit of a drag and formulaic.

6. Generations - I love playing long generational storylines, so this pack just rounds that out and adds extra detail to their lives, but I don't feel like it's particularly special.

7. Pets - I do love the option to have pets, but I usually don't play with them. As another commenter mentioned above, pets are needy in the Sims 3 and end up being a bit of a pain to take care of. But they do have a place for sure, and having horses (unlike Sims 4) is cool.

8. Island Paradise - The world is so laggy and requires deletion of all houseboats to make it playable. I'm not interested in mermaids. But beach vacations can be fun from time to time, and also I like a lot of the build objects that come with the game.

9. Ambitions - I know this is controversial, but I don't love ambitions. Most of the careers don't really speak to me. Laundry is cool but not game changing.

10. Showtime - this pack was uninspiring. I very rarely feel called to play with acrobats and magicians.

11. Into the Future (the only expansion pack I don't own, so take this with a grain of salt)

I change my rating all the time, depending on which packs i'm playing with more recently and how my most recent experiences go. Anyway here is my ranking for now:

Packs i can't imagine playing without:

1 - Supernatural - i love having supernatural creatures roaming free in the world, with everyone's awareness, like in a True Blood kind of reality :smiley:

2 - Seasons - i like the challenge of having to manage my sim's activities according to the weather.

3 - World Adventures - there's so much in this one: the tombs, the amazing worlds where my sims sometimes just take a regular vacation, the photography skill, the nectar making...

4 - Pets - love the horses and the small animals. Also like cats and dogs...

5 - Generations - like the new interactions for all lifestages but the midlife crisis is my favourite.

6 - Late night - i've played in Bridgeport more times than i can count. Love the vibe of the city and the instruments and bands...

7 - University Life - i like to send my sim to the uni and the ability to get one more trait. Not a fan of the social groups though...

8 - Ambitions - the consignement store and the self employment are my favourites but i also like the careers. Never used the laundromat or laundry at home...

Packs i haven't played enough or at all but still want to give it a go:

9 - Island Paradise
10 - Into the future

And then...
11 - Showtime - i don't like the careers at all. I don't play online... i could uninstall this pack and wouldn't miss it at all.

I'm going to be a bit harsh on some expansions I think.

1. Late Night. I love this one, Bridgeport might be laggy but it has all the Sims I know and love (or hate, I'm still looking at you Wayne...) but the sheer fun it is to finally have Sims in the City... And not Urbz, is just a nice experience on its own, plus vampires are easily my most played lifestate.

2. Frankly, it's gotta be University Life. It's not something I always use, but Plantsims are one of my favourite lifestates as well. When I do actually play the University side to the expansion I also like the sheer mayhem thats going on. Streakers everywhere. Illegally tagging. Fun.

3. Island Paridise. Lags a big issue even with fixes, but mermaids make it all worth it. Admittedly though it starts to feel a bit lacking when you've explored all there is to explore. But thats why I also like to kickstart a resort and just spend time treating it like TS2:OFB.

4. Supernatural. I'm often an occult player over all, witches are probably my main reason to like this pack, even if I almost never have any other lifestate roaming around, plus I just like the clothes.

5. Seasons. I didn't even know what to put here otherwise, but seasons just adds what should've been there from the start. I never did things like the holiday parties, but its good to see rain at least. Not good to have your male Sims getting sucked into the sky though!

6. Ambitions. Not going to lie, I almost forget I have this expansion pack sometimes, I seldom do some of the careers since they become completely impossible to manage if you have a household bigger than two people. Some features are cool and sometimes I just like blowing things up. Random strangers car? It's GONE. The cat bed? It's GONE. Your exes urn? Yup. That's a GONE.

7. Generations. I'm not a family player, most features go overlooked, and there's just the case of having to remind myself to try the features. But if there's one thing I do use. It's the ability to record and play videos on the TV. I'd like to admit I've used that for some rather evil reasons like recording a certain hated Sim of mine burning to death. But that's the best part of generations for me! My inner-evil can get a quick laugh.

8. World Adventures. Oh loadscreens. How I dread them. Some cool features, but I prefer the vacation experience of the Sims 1/2's respective expansions over the Tomb Raider Sims experience. And the loading screens are what tips the scale.

8. Into the Future. Loadscreens alone make this a rarely used expansion pack, I also don't like the straight up future experience, but it does have a Futurama reference. I also don't like Plumbots, they're just there for me, I don't think they've got much going for them.

10. Showtime. Oh if this expansion is one I've only used once. It's not my type of thing, I like having the diva trait, but thats about it. It's that expansion where if you don't do the careers much its added it feels like deadweight.

11. Pets. I used to use pets in my neighbourhood, but now they're just... There. They cause lag, horses shouldn't even be in Bridgeport, they need to stop spawning in fountains! Also they're just lacking once you train them, it's nothing like the Sims One where there was a petshow to enter them into and using them to protect your garden. It's content I only haven't uninstalled because of the clothing.