The Best and Worst of The Sims 3 Expansion Packs

As I sit here reflecting on my years of reviewing The Sims series, one question has always stood out as particularly puzzling to fans: which expansion pack is the best? Which one is the crappiest? How does this one compare to that other one? Until now, with all the packs available and The Sims 4 on its way, I thought it was high time to take a look back at my list of Sims 3 expansion packs, stuff packs, and put them in some sort of arbitrary subjective order.

First up is my Expansion Pack list, which I'll go from worst to best. Coming in at number 11 is Showtime. The pack that landed at the very bottom of my list is here for good reason: it was completely unnecessary! Not just because of the Katy Perry connection, which doesn't really bother me - I don't give two craps about her being on the cover or not - what bothered me was that we already had Late Night before this and Showtime was basically the same thing with a slightly different coat of paint. The new careers weren't particularly fun for me, and I didn't care for the online social features or the Simport. And don't even get me started on the genie, which just kind of showed up out of nowhere. This pack was completely forgettable and was the first one I uninstalled immediately after reviewing it.

Next up is Supernatural, which unfortunately falls at number 10 on my list. As I said in my review, I just don't care for these creepy and kooky mysterious and spooky paranormal packs. I did like some of the outfits and the goth-infused items, but the rest of it? No thank you. My style of play is more grounded in reality, and whenever fantasy elements come into play, I lose interest. And honestly, where were those zombies all day anyway? Maybe they needed brains so much because whoever made it that way, having to disable them from the start was just plain silly.

Freakin' time travel comes next at number 9 with Into the Future. I've got to say, Sims team - you've really jumped the shark on this one. It's silly, over-the-top, and downright sub-par as far as things it adds that I actually find fun. Traveling to utopian and dystopian futures and messing around with sci-fi fantasy objects can be a fun gimmick for some, but for me, the charm wore off quickly and it became more of a nuisance than anything else. And don't even get me started on building those androids - they're easily the best part of the pack, but bringing them into the main game broke my immersion.

At number 8 comes World Adventures. When this first came out, I was not impressed at all because it made The Sims 3 feel like more of a spin-off of the life simulator it should have been. Adding objectives, progression, and adventure goals that didn't quite fit with the rest of the game was just weird to me. However, as time went on, I started to really appreciate the fact that it provided three distinct new areas to explore that differed from the rest of the game. It broke up the monotony of living a normal life and let me explore tombs like some sort of Indiana Jones with bladder control problems.

Coming in at number 7 is Pets, which isn't higher on my list because I'm just not a huge pets person. I love my real-life pets, but I don't have much fun keeping up with them in The Sims. I'd rather spend all my time making Duke Nukem and attempting to woo-hoo the entire town instead of training Fido to not take a million dumps on everything. Unicorns were pretty cool, I guess, because they were Hell's minions in disguise, but that's about it. The only reason Pets made it onto my list is that it's actually kind of enjoyable for those who are into pets.

Finally, at number 6 comes Ambitions. If you think about how much time your Sim spends at work or messing around with random hobbies and skill-building at home, it makes sense that an expansion adding to both of these would come highly recommended. New careers, expanded base game careers, new hobbies and skills, tattooing, thrift shops, and even detonation - this pack had a lot of fun stuff packed into it for me. And the whole new town was nicely designed. I used it quite a bit, actually.

The next installment in my Sims 3 expansion packs rundown is going to have to wait until I cover some of the more interesting details about each pack.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en*mechanical keyboard typing*You know, ever since I started reviewing all of these some years ago,I have gotten one question about The Sims 3 more than any otherand that is which expansion pack is the best?Which one's the crappiest?How does this one compare to this other one?And, you know, until they were all out I had no way of really answering that properlybut now that they're all hereand it's doneand The Sims 4 is on its wayI figured it's as good a time as any to take a look backat all the Sims 3 expansion packsand Stuff Packsand put them in some sort of arbitrary subjective listthat I would put together if I were to do so, and I just did,so let's watch it.First we're gonna start at my Expansion Pack listand we're gonna go from the very worst to the bestand then we'll do the Stuff Packs after thatSo, let's get straight to#11 ShowtimeThe pack at the very bottom of my list is here for good reason:It was completely unnecessary!Not just because of the Katy Perry connection, I don't give two craps about her being on the cover or not,w hat bothered me was that we already had Late Night before thisand Showtime was basically the same thing with a slightly different coat of paint.I didn't find the new careers fun,didn't care for the online social features,Simport was a mess,and the genie was just kind of there.This was just completely forgettableand was the first expansion I uninstalled immediately after reviewing it.#10 SupernaturalAll right, I know several are going to send me hate mail for this, but whatever!As I said in my review, I just don't care for these creepy and kooky mysterious and spooky paranormal Packs.I did like some of the outfits and the goth-infused itemsbut the rest of it, I never played with ever again.My style of play is more grounded in realityand whenever you start tossing in fantasy elements, you lose me.Give me a spin-off game if you're going to do that!And, holy crap, where those zombies annoying or what?Maybe they were after brains so muchbecause whoever made it so that you couldn't initially disable them needed a brain,badly.#9 Into the FutureFreakin' time travel!OK, Sims team, you done jumped the shark on this one.It's silly, over-the-top, and downright sub-paras far as things it adds that I actually find fun.Traveling to utopian and dystopian futures and messing with sci-fi fantasy objectscan be a fun gimmick, but for me the charm wore off quicklyand it became more of a nuisance than a really compelling way to play.Building your own androids is easily the best part of the Packbut the fact that you can then bring these overpowered superbeings into the main game totally broke my immersion.#8 World AdventuresWhen this first came out, I was not impressed at allbecause it made The Sims 3 feel like more of a spin-off of the life simulator it should have been.It added objectives, progression, and adventure end goalsthat, to me, didn't belong in this type of sandbox game.However, as time went on I really started to appreciate the factthat it provided three distinct new areas to explore that differend from the rest of the gameand it broke up the monotony of living a normal lifeand let me explore tombs like some sort of Indiana Jones with bladder control problems.It's not a bad pack at all, actually,it's just not my cup of tea 100% of the time.#7 PetsThe only reason this is not higher on my listis the fact that I am not a huge pets person.I love my pets in real life, but I just don't have much fun keeping up with them in The Sims.I'd rather just make Duke Nukem and attempt to woo-hoo the entire towninstead of spending all my time training Fido to not take a million dumps on everything.Unicorns were pretty cool I guess, if only because they were Hell's minions in disguise,but I just don't care much for this one otherwise.The only thing that kept it installed on my hard drive was the town itself,which had this cool neverending fall aesthetic.Also, that ice cream truck still creeps me outand I wish it would just crash into a telephone pole and explode.#6 Island ParadiseI've gotta be honest, the only reason this isn't closer to the bottom of the listis because of my own life experiences.Having lived on an island in the Caribbean myself in real life,the fact that you could finally have a bit of that lifestyle in The Sims 3 was just awesome to me.Otherwise this Pack is kind of forgettablewith only houseboats, SCUBA diving, and running your own hotel being the highlightsand all of them can be lived without in your game quite easily.It also broke the playability of the game after extended use for some people,myself included,so use with caution.#5 AmbitionsIf you think about how much time your Sim spends at work,or messing around with random hobbies and skill-building at home,it makes sense that an Expansion adding to both of these would come highly recommended.New careers, expanded base game careers, new hobbies and skills,tattooing, thrift shops, and freaking detonationmade for quite the enjoyable Expansion Pack in my eyes.And it came with a whole new town that I felt was nicely designedand I used it quite a bit.It's all the kind of stuff I think of when I think \"Expansion Pack\"without delving into the territory of fantasy or paranormal sillinessand that makes it well worth it to me.#4 GenerationsI am well aware that some people don't like this one much,and I can see why.You only get the most bang for your buck from this if you play with families and Sims of all agesand several of the new additions seem minor or were added to the base game through a free patch anyway.But while I can certainly live without a lot of the stuff it adds,it just fleshes out so much of the game and adds so many new interactions and optionsthat it feels like a very worthwhile addition.Basically, Generations is all stuff that should have been in the base game to begin with,and that's either a good or a bad thing depending on how cynical you are.#3 University LifeAs you might have understood by now, I really enjoy the opportunity to do something a little differentfrom the normal routine in The Sims,provided it's also pretty realistic and doesn't go overboard.And University Life is the best example of that in my opinion for The Sims 3.Your Sims aged young adult and older can attend college and enjoy all that that entailsincluding copious amounts of streakingand experimenting with mood-altering substances.It's chock-full of new activities, items, and skills,and the pace is just different enough from the normal gameplaythat it's a great distraction from the virtual rat race of the rest of the game.#2 Late NightThis was my favorite Pack for a long time for one simple reason:Cities.I love cities!I love tall buildings, I love the city lifestyle,I love the high-rise apartments you can live in here,and I really dug the new dive bars and night clubs.It's a shame that most of the time they were completely emptyand that the celebrity system was more of a pain than fun for very longlargely due to the stupid paparazzi that never went away.It also had vampires that were less involved than those in Supernaturalbut I didn't care. I just wanted to walk around the cityand enjoy the downtown ambience and get fat off of food trucks.And #1 SeasonsIf you saw my review for this, you'll know that this is one of the few Packs that seriously drew me inright at the beginning and got me excited for The Sims 3 again.I loved seasons in The Sims 2, and they were even better here.Rain, snow, summer, autumn, holidays, aliens,this was just an all-around enjoyable Expansion Packand I didn't hate any of it.In fact, I thought it was the one that changed the absolute most about the gameno matter how you choose to playbecause weather is such an intrinsic part of everyday lifein both The Sims and the real world.Weather changes moods, changes plans, changes smalltalk conversation topics.It's just something that should always be in a life simulator, and I approve 100%.And now it's on to the Stuff Packs,and as you might have guessed if you saw my reviews of those,I don't particularly care for any one of them too muchmainly because the price is ridiculous for what you get.But, whatever, here are my best and worstand this time we're going the opposite direction;we're starting with my favorite and ending with my least favorite.Let's get straight to#1 High-End Loft StuffYeah, go figure that the very first Stuff Pack they released would also end up being the bestand it would all go downhill from here.Even though I wasn't super psyched about it to begin with,it added several items that I frequently usedand brought back some from The Sims 1 as well,which makes this my favorite Stuff Pack.#2 Fast Lane StuffCars are awesome, garages are awesome,and rockabilly music is awesome.And yeah, Sims still teleported inside of these carsbut that's more the fault of the base game, not this pack.Plus, the Norwegian version of this was called Full Fartand that still makes me laugh.#3 70s, 80s, & 90s StuffI still don't know why they didn't just call this Decades Stuff, but whatever.It's three of my favorite decades in one Pack. What's not to love?Well, other than the fact that it left out a lot of stuff that was super iconic from those decades,and many items just look genericbut whatever, it still had its place and it came with some really cool music.#4 Town Life StuffThis was pretty much just a bunch of prebuilt lotsbut nonetheless I had fun making my own phallic townusing it in conjunction with the Create-A-World tool.And while the lots it came with didn't add anything new to the game,they still look pretty cool, at least if you're into that type of modern architecture.#5 Outdoor Living StuffAll sorts of stuff for living outdoorsand some stuff for the almost-outdoors,pretty boring as far as premises go,but I also ended up using several of these items in my houses throughout the yearsand farting on non-drinkable lemonade side, it could have been worse.#6 Master Suite StuffMy, my, what a Stuff Pack!Sure, all it added were eye masks and a bunch of stuff for your bedroom,and the best I can say is, at least most of it looked half-decent.But honestly the greatest part about this pack were the item names full of innuendo and sexual connotations.\"Glamour Puss\" and\"Delicate Dangling Participle\"?Ooh, yeah, talk dirty to me Sims team!#7 Movie StuffGeneric cosplay outfits and nonfunctioning decor items, meh!I can't say I've ever used anything from this pack beyond what I did for the reviewexcept for maybe the Dr. Frank-N-Furter outfitjust to amuse myself when everything else got boring.#8 Diesel StuffUgh, son of a nutsack, what a waste of hard drive space this was!I didn't care about the brandand half the items were downright hideous.Not only that, but many of them didn't let you change their styleso even if you did like the mesh, you were stuck with some awful texture on top of it.and finally #9 Katy Perry's Sweet TreatsAh, yes, the Sweet Treats House of Painand me eating the artwork at the end of the review.Need I say more?Yes, in fact, I do, because this was an atrocity and represents all of the worst aspects of the Sims seriesfrom the lazy item designto the stupidly high priceto the hamfisted cash-grab natureof its half-hearted celebrity endorsement.Sweet Treats made me fear for the future of a series that I loveand it also makes me shed a malcontent tearknowing that sealed copies now sell for upwards of $70.And knowing that even when I bashed this thing to hell and backthat might have actually made some people want it morewhich makes me feel like a bad person.Screw this Pack; I hope I forget about it.And that is all for my best and worst of the Sims 3 Expansion Packs.Stay tuned for my full review of The Sims 4on this channel shortly after it comes out.All of these are gonna be dirt cheap soon now that The Sims 4 is coming out on September 2nd 2014so if you've missed any of these and anything that I said sounded intriguing,maybe it's a good idea to keep a lookout for some sales and grab itas long as it's not Sweet Treats.Ah, but whatever, they stop manufacturing that anywaywhich is just good for the betterment of humanity.And if you want more in the meantime, there are plenty of videos on my channelcovering The Sims 3, The Sims 2, 4, and 1, and whatever else I happen to coverwhich is a lot of stuff; I make new videos every single weekso subscribing is not only very appreciated, but would help you get more content to hopefully enjoy.And you can also interact with me and other Simmers on Twitter and Facebookas well as support LGR on Patreon which lets you not only support the showbut also provides perks like being able to see videos there before anywhere else at all.And, as always,I thank you very much for watching.\n"