I mostly rate a pack by how much fun it gives me and by the size and type of world it gives me, and the amount of new gameplay it has.
First would be Get Together, it came with a large explicable world. The only thing that could have made the world better would be being able to swim, boat (IL) and jet ski (IL) around the island, swimming in the actual fishing pond, and wading in the streams. It came with a new aspiration and traits. It came with new lot types, a cafe lot, a pool lot, and a nightclub lot. It came with a dance floor and synchronized dancing. It came with pool water where you could make pools look like ponds. It has steam vents and bubble vents and a pool/natural pool jumping board. It came with a woohoo closet that kids could play in too. It came with games, a dart board, a foosball game and a 4 player video game ( gave me a way to make an arcade ). It came with an expresso machine where coffee can change your moodlets. I can’t remember if it came with new fish and plants. It came with special lots, like the haunted mansion, the ruins and the bluffs. It came with a system where sims could call your sims invite them to an outdoor lot to party. It came with dancing around a fire, and a portable bar. And, last but not least it comes with a club system that interacts with most other packs. It just has so much in it that increases the fun in playing the game overall. Not to mention, it has both build and CAS. The reason it got a bad rap at first was because people overwhelmingly wanted toddlers back. So I think this one has to be first on my list. It’s still my favorite world.
Second on my list is Get to Work Disappointingly the world is small so it doesn’t get much credit in that department. But the 3 new active jobs with their own work places I hugely enjoyed. I was hoping to see more work places like those in future packs, I feel like active jobs were severely nerfed because many people didn’t think they had enough control over them. I thought they did a great job with the active careers in this pack, and was looking forward to more of them. Retail, Retail, Retail. Admittedly, the retail system could have been better. But, I wanted a way to make a business and sell things, well in my case actually make a business so my sims could buy stuff at a store.. The mechanisms for running a store were pretty good, if they had only made it like Dine Out where you could set up a business without having a sim buy it, it would have been much better though. My daughter has her world filled with businesses. It’s too bad we couldn’t have a home run business. And buying clothes from a mannequin was sorely lacking in clothing retail. The game should have come with buying clothing from the beginning, unlocking pieces after they were bought, a huge major flaw in my book. But that was more the fault of the base game rather than the pack. I would have liked to have been able to buy clothing off of a rack instead of off of mannequin though, that way we would have so much more variety. It would have been nice to add separate pieces to our home clothing inventory. Like add a necklace or ring after creating a jewelry store, shoes after creating a shoe store, etc. we could have made different departments within a store too. Mannequins should have been for looks like in a regular store, and we should have been able to buy off of a rack any piece clothing in CAS one item at a time. Get to Work really needs an update in the way clothing is sold. And they should add a clothing challenge where you have to buy clothing ( whether from the drawer, mirror, online, or from a retail store, by piece). This is one expansion that could benefit greatly from an update as Retail is an important aspect of the game in my opinion. Add some jewelry counters, some shoe racks, some hats on a shelf. Let’ sims buy ( open up in personal inventory ) separate pieces. Give retail shopping for clothes and accessories a reason to be there. Also, please add some fruit and vegetable bins so we can sell any type of fruit, vegetable, herbs, fish, out of bins ( without growing it, fishing it, if making it, the same with honey, cricket flower,, bread, eggs, milk etc. open all those products up to those who own retail stores so they can buy and resell it. That only makes sense. It would be nice to do that with any food made item too. Store owners shouldn’t have to make anything they sell, they should just have to buy it at wholesale and sell at retail. Still Retail was an important item on my list as not all of my sims, farm, create candles, create furniture ( eco lifestyle/wood working table e), etc. and at least many of those things can be downloaded from the gallery. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, it brought us Aliens.
Third for me would probably be City Living A nice city with lots of apartments and festivals. Home gaming machines,karaoke, Bubble machine ( mood builder ), basketball, and a lot of other game play items. It also came with many lot traits another new aspect to the sims game just before it’s release. It had a small amount if grungy stuff. It had a lot of furniture, and a great variety of clothes. It had a cultural aspect and added many food items as well as food stalls ( we shouldn’t have to pay to open stalls though, I hope they will remedy that, even if they limit the number that could be on a lot ). Overall it had lots of game play. And lot of places to place sims. It came with the Karaoke bar lot too.
Next I think for me would be Island living. Ocean Swimming, sun tanning, lounging, new lot trails, aspirations, and sim traits, beach combing, shell collecting, more bathing suits, I loved the nice relaxing word and building materials, came with a small boat and jet skiing. New plants and fish, festivals a new active career, other careers and part time careers, and being able to make money with side jobs. It came with cute island furniture and a lot of other build buy items. It is such a beautiful world.
Next are Cottage living and Cats and Dogs. The major feature with each is Animals. Both have nice worlds too.
Get Famous is next. It came with an Active Acting Career and a Fame system and I believe they brought Reputation with it. The lack of more active careers was disappointing as well as how small the world was.
Next would be Snowy Escape. it brought winter activities, but not ones that could transfer over to other worlds. Many of the lots were small, it had some festivals, but not that appealing to me. I liked the winter clothes.
Next is Seasons, but no world, that disappointed me. Also…. It rains too much in most places for me, and there need to be a way to tell what the weather will be in each world before you travel. I do love the calendar and Holiday aspects.. .. that actually might put it on par with Get Fsmous, and Snowy escape to be honest.
Then is Eco Living I like the community lot type and the hobbies. I like the type of world and that you can pollute it or make it green. I don’t care for many of the NAP’s. The CAS and Build buy was limited I thought. The world was too small.
Discover University had too few and too small of lots. It’s dissapointing you can’t rotate away to other households easily. College is just not fun in this game. The Robotics is nice, and the bikes were a nice addition, but toddlers should have had trikes, and children should have had bikes. Just disappointing in many ways. But it did add some activities.
