Struggling choosing and buying packs (ranking and cheap options)

I think you can build your own bundles in origin, so you could try that. There are sales every now and then as well and next month is the sims4's 7 year anniversary so it's likely that they will have a sale on origin when that happens.

This is how I would rank them:

1. City Living - One of my favorite packs, I was a bit tired of the sims4 back in 2016 and this pack made the game fun again, apartments are offering a different living experience and San Myshuno is one of my favorite worlds. I know not all people might share my opinion though on this one.
2. Cottage Living - I'm enjoying this pack a lot but it does have some pretty bad bugs reported though like causing your game to crash because it creates too many households. It might be safer to wait until they have patched this unless you really want the three additional items.
3. Get Together - I had a lot of fun with this one back in 2015, creating crazy clubs and doing all sort of things, I'm not sure how well it holds up today.
4. Discover University - I had pretty fun playing different sims studying, once I figured out how to get A+ though it became less fun, but I had fun for a while.
5. Parenthood - I think I had fun playing this one when it came out because it adds a lot to family gameplay, but now I barely use it.
6. Snowy Escape - I got bored of this world pretty fast, the world and build/buy and CAS is pretty, but the gameplay got old very fast, too many activities that are locked to the world and you can't even do a lot of them on your home lot.
7. Tiny Living - I didn't enjoy building tiny buildings and I barely use the build items in this pack.

I have listed them below in my preferred order, but keep in mind I prefer to play mainly single sims that spend most of their time outside their home lot.

Get Together - club system, and the world
Cottage Living - fun with animals, world is very pretty
City Living - karaoke, apartments, festivals
Snowy Scape - snow activities, japan,
Tiny Living (Stuff pack) - great looking furniture
Parenthood (Game pack) - only if you like to play with families with children
Discover University - only if you like to play school

"crocobaura;c-17954694" wrote:
I have listed them below in my preferred order, but keep in mind I prefer to play mainly single sims that spend most of their time outside their home lot.

Get Together - club system, and the world
Cottage Living - fun with animals, world is very pretty
City Living - karaoke, apartments, festivals
Snowy Scape - snow activities, japan,
Tiny Living (Stuff pack) - great looking furniture
Parenthood (Game pack) - only if you like to play with families with children
Discover University - only if you like to play school

Thank you so much! This is really useful!

"logion;c-17954686" wrote:
I think you can build your own bundles in origin, so you could try that. There are sales every now and then as well and next month is the sims4's 7 year anniversary so it's likely that they will have a sale on origin when that happens.

This is how I would rank them:

1. City Living - One of my favorite packs, I was a bit tired of the sims4 back in 2016 and this pack made the game fun again, apartments are offering a different living experience and San Myshuno is one of my favorite worlds. I know not all people might share my opinion though on this one.
2. Cottage Living - I'm enjoying this pack a lot but it does have some pretty bad bugs reported though like causing your game to crash because it creates too many households. It might be safer to wait until they have patched this unless you really want the three additional items.
3. Get Together - I had a lot of fun with this one back in 2015, creating crazy clubs and doing all sort of things, I'm not sure how well it holds up today.
4. Discover University - I had pretty fun playing different sims studying, once I figured out how to get A+ though it became less fun, but I had fun for a while.
5. Parenthood - I think I had fun playing this one when it came out because it adds a lot to family gameplay, but now I barely use it.
6. Snowy Escape - I got bored of this world pretty fast, the world and build/buy and CAS is pretty, but the gameplay got old very fast, too many activities that are locked to the world and you can't even do a lot of them on your home lot.
7. Tiny Living - I didn't enjoy building tiny buildings and I barely use the build items in this pack.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate all of this, it must’ve taken a little long to write! It’s helping me a lot!

There are good sales frequently so maybe be willing (if you can) to wait a bit.
I like them all and this isn't my personal ranking of how I like them but for single sims that mostly spend their time away from home some thoughts:

Snowy Escape for the outdoor sports, and hiking, and just the beauty of it. Also of course festivals. Makes for a wonderful vacation world or active sim world.

Get Together for party, dancing and djing (also has a beautiful world).

City Living for visiting areas, art, basketball, festivals and singing karaoke. I don't have my sims live in the apartments usually but I do enjoy this pack. My sims rarely miss the Romance or Spice festivals.

University - Personally my sims only went to classes then home to cram and do homework to get those A's... if you are willing to take them through it slow or don't mind some less that A grades it can be a lot more social. Still ranking it last for you.

Cottage Living is my dream pack.. but for me it's really home and community based so not sure that it relates to how you play as much. I guess it depends. It's a great pack but my sims are all homebodies growing things, canning and taking care of their animals.

Parenthood... not sure this will offer much for single sims that are mostly out of the house either.

Tiny Living same as above although of course all packs offer more to build with and do.

Hard to rank them. Depends on your playstyle... they all add SOMETHING fun. And for me all packs sort of work together.

number 4 for me
City Living. I like it but I'm also kind of dissapointed. It doesn't have the over crowded NYC hustle and bustle feel I really wanted from a city pack. But once again it does have a lot of things I use. Basketball, festivals, apartments, fireworks (I use these everywhere at all parties lol) tons of new lot traits, gaming consoles etc.


number 1 for me
Get Together I use the club system from this ALOT. The world is very big and very beautiful. One of the biggest worlds in ts4 actually. There are many creative ways to use the club system. For example I use it to create a highschool. I get two sims and create two separate highschool clubs. I take the club leaders to my self made highschool. Assign the club activities and gather everyone there.
Also great for parties because the club members won't leave until you end the gathering. Plus I love how you can group sims and have them do things "together"
I'm sure get together has other great things but it's been a while since I brought it. I forgot everything it added lol

number 6 for me
Discover University. This is at the bottom of my list because I just don't enjoy the college life or boring homework according to my playstyle. I'm hoping for an active highschool pack. But a lot of people enjoy this one. I do use things it added like bikes, building robots etc.
Not a lot of use out of the world as most of it is made of dorms you can't change.


number 2 for me
Cottage Living. if you enjoy farming you will love this one. It added a lot of challenge and village farm life. Love the animals, world is country style but beautiful. It's not my top pack because I'm not into the cottage core thing but I integrated a lot of things from it into my survival play and I'm having fun.

number 3 for me
Snowy escape. This actually feels move like a vacation pack even though it's not. I mainly use it for vacations. Fun snow activities, mountain climbing, hiking together where sims can walk and talk together ❤. Japanese themed. I don't like that the lots are small (like real Japan) I find it hard to play big families there. Only a few are big but not enough for me.

number 5 for me
Parenthood (Game pack) honestly don't remember what this added....??? but if you like family game play I'm sure this is the one lol

number 6 for me
Tiny Living (Stuff pack) oh no, oh no,oh no no no no nooo.
A LOT of people love this so don't take my word for it but it's bottom of the barrel for me lol. ?
There are better stuff packs.

Also I noticed get famous wasn't in your list. If you love the rich celebrity life style this pack is FUN. Still one of my most used pack and a lot to do with an in depth celebrity system.

The best packs for you will depend on your personal play style. I suggest checking out the SimsVIP guides and other reviews if you haven't already done so. I also like to build my own bundles and/or wait for sales.

This is how I would rank your options:

1. Cottage Living - I think this EP was made for me. I love the theme, world, activities, and animals. You may want to wait for a sale though unless you really want the bonus items.

2. Parenthood - As a family player, I wouldn't want to play without it. It makes the caregiver-child relationship and interactions feel so much more meaningful.

3. Snowy Escape - It is getting harder for me to choose between them now, but I think Snowy Escape wins. I love the Japanese theme and world, where my sims enjoy fun and relaxing holidays.

4. Get Together - I love the world and the club system is very versatile. I also really like the dancing skill, although I would like it to be developed further.

5. Discover University - I enjoyed this pack much more than I thought I would. I don't take my sims to university very often, but it is great for storytelling. It can be quite challenging, but rewarding to see your sims achieve their dreams.

6. City Living - I am a country girl at heart, but I enjoy the singing skill, festivals, and careers.

7. Tiny Living - I think it's a little unfair to compare a SP with GPs/EPs. It's actually quite a good SP if you like to build and play in small lots. I don't build much, but I really like the CAS/BB items and the perks from living in a tiny home.

If you like supernatural gameplay, I also highly recommend Vampires. It is definitely my favourite pack.

1. Cottage Living - I really am enjoying this EP. I love the animals, the tasks, the lot challenge, everything about it. There are some bugs that need to be worked out but all in all it is a strong pack.

2. Get Together- I rated this second because I really love the world and I feel it fits in with Cottage Living especially the build/buy mode. The world has many lots too and one 64x64 which is nice. The dancing skill is really fun too.

3. Tiny Living - I am not into the tiny spaces as I like to play families but I love the furniture in this pack. It has a mid century modern vibe that goes so well with the Bowling Pack.

4. Parenthood- I really love family play and I love the furniture in this pack. I use it constantly. The only thing I really hate is the kids making messes. I had to mod it out since I really can't stand it. Other than that I do like the interactions you get with the kids.

5. City Living - I am not a big apartment person. The walls are way too tall and the neighbors are annoying. I prefer to build houses. I do like the festivals though and collecting snow globes is fun. I like trying out all the different foods with my sims and learning new recipes.

6. Snowy Escape - I have fun with this pack as a vacation destination for my Sims. But other than that I found it a little shallow. The new career is okay but not very interesting.

7. Discovery University- It really was a toss up between Snowy Escape and this one. I do enjoy sending my sims to university now and then. I really like the furniture too but when I want to play in rotation it doesn't work well. I usually end up staying on the sim I want to send to University just so they don't fail. This pack also got repetitive pretty quickly for me so that is why I ranked it last. But I was up in the air because I really did enjoy the robotics skill and making a robot. I think that was the most fun. But then, robots live forever so I had a hard time deciding what to do with the robot. He ended up staying with my family forever because I couldn't bring myself to kill him off LOL.

Hope this helps you decide. Have fun!!

I defintely reccomend waiting for sales to get your packs since they do go on sale fairly frequently. But here's how I would rate the ones you're considering.

Get Together - I agree with others that the club system is defintely useful and can come in handy. And the world is really beautiful, with a bunch of unique lots. (I love the Bluffs and Chalet Gardens) but other than the club system, most of the gameplay (and even CAS items) is centered around partying/nightclubs/etc. So if that's not your kind of scene (I'm not sure where you're from if there is all ages clubs or not) then maybe you should consider one of the other ones for now. It's defintely a pack I think is worth buying though.

Snowy Escape - Whether or not you'll like this pack probably depends on whether you like sending your sims to do outdoor sports or hiking and things like that. I really like the Lifestyles feature and the world is super pretty and unique. The pack seems to be very well made in my opinion. And the Build/Buy items are some of my favorites. (Lots of kitty cat items.) And although Seasons isn't even required to have the snow and weather, I think you'll get more out if it since you do have that pack. Plus, since it's post-Island Living the water is swimmable.

Discover University - I was struggling whether to put this pack third or fourth (the toss up being City Living). What I'll say is... if you're not into playing school/university/sending your sims to class, it doesn't really offer a whole lot in terms of gameplay. But this pack has some of the best CAS options in my opinion, and the BEST out of your options. I find myself using so many of the items all of the time. They are extremely versatile. And like with Snowy Escape, the water is swimmable. And these last 2 reasons are really why it beats City Living for me personally.

City Living - Don't get me wrong, the pack is defintely fun with the festivals and what not, but since I myself didn't grow up in, or even near any major cities I don't really feel a super strong connection with it, or San Myshuno, compared to Cats & Dogs, and Realm of Magic which has a sort of small town vibe.

Tiny Living (Stuff pack) - I was prginally going to rate this one lower since as a stuff pack, it doesn't really offer much gameplay apart from the tiny home lot, but the items that come in the pack are super cute and can really come in handy when you're cramped for space.

Parenthood (Game pack) - I'm probably in the minority here, but Parenthood is probably one of my least favorite packs. If you're someone who enjoys playing with families it may be of interest to you. But if you're not a family player (like me) then it doesn't really offer much. Like the name suggests, it's all about raising kids and parenting.

* I don't have Cottage Living yet, so I can't give any opinions on that one.



And now even though these weren't on your list, I'd still reccommend these two.

Vampires - If you enjoy supernatural/occult gameplay, this pack is an absoulte MUST HAVE. It's easily one of my top 3 packs (along with Realm of Magic and Cats & Dogs) since I am majorly into this play style, and although it's not super versatile, the CAS really comes in handy if you're making goth/punk sims or want some victorian-era style clothing for whatever reason. The only dissapointment for me with this pack is like with Glimmerbrook, Forgotten Hollow is so small, and I really wish there were more lots.

Paranormal Stuff Pack - Again, this is one you'd only want to consider if you actually like occult themes, but this is another one of my favorite packs. And one of the few stuff packs I feel that's actually worth the full price, since it introduces a lot of gameplay for its price point and feels almost like a mini gamepack. It doesn't actually come with any new occult lifestates (since ghosts are base game) but defintely ties in nicely with the other occult packs, especially Realm of Magic! And it's also the only stuff pack that comes with new NPCs (although you do need to summon them.)