Horse Ranch is great if you like to play cottage core. There's nectar making, horses, goats, it completes the experience from Cottage Living, both in terms of gameplay and in the BB catalogue. World is lovely.
Life and Death is ok if you like to play with ghosts and enjoy funerals and let your sims die. Apart from a very few build items it has no cottage core elements which is quite a feat if you ask me considering their inspiration for the world, and the world comes with autumn season only, so it's not much use for gardening or if you enjoy different seasons in your game. Tarot cards are nice but too little gameplay from them. The family portrait is also nice. The CAS and BB catalogues have mostly dark swatches so not very versatile.
Bust the Dust is not buggy, but you'll probably grow tired soon of the constant need to vacuum the dust and bunnies, especially if you like to play big households in big houses. Works great with the Cats and Dogs robot vacuum, so that's a plus, most of my sims use that.
Moschino Stuff CAS is an after thought, nobody buys the pack for the CAS, it's like 6 items of clothing and that's it. It does expand on photography which is great skill for everyday use, vacations, family occasions and what not.
For Rent world is lovely despite the lack of tigers, and the rental system is still busted so I have yet to try it out in my game. Love the electric kettle and instant pot and the marble and hopscotch games.
Book Nook has only one or two little shelves that slot together like the Home Decorator shelves, the rest of the book cases are like regular bookcases so no disappearing acts from them.
Lovestruck comes with lots of new kissing interactions. Love the picnic blanket and the chocolates and the cuddle in bed interaction. The world is lovely too.
Crystal Creations has a nice new crafting skill for your sims and some nice new jewelry. You can grow crystals in a crystal tree so you can include that with the gardening activities. Even if your sims won't wear the jewelry, you can sell it on a sales table or gift it and charge the crystals under moonlight for extra powers.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. This really helps me out!
I had no idea that the Life and Death world was only in autumn. I really dislike that and was not aware of that at all. It's also disappointing that the swatches are all very dark although not at all surprising.
I also didn't know about the marble and hopscotch games in For Rent. Those sound amazing but it's disappointing that the rental system is still broken.
It sounds like Lovestruck comes with a lot more gameplay features than I originally thought so I'll have to take a closer look at that.
Again, thank you so much!
