I couldn't imagine playing without Windenburg it's so beautiful and it comes with Get Together and the club system lets you make all kinds of groups , like family , friends , kids , painting , gardening ,the choice is only limited by your imagination.
Also City Living is lots of fun with festivals and apartment life. It's hard to imagine playing without any of the packs because I don't know if I could do without the active careers either. My least used pack is the get famous one since the town itself is so small , all my famous sims live elsewhere and if my sim isn't in the fame business ?? It does have some nice features though. Island living seems like more of a game pack than an EP. And since you've played sims you know what seasons adds to the game.