Which Sims 4 Packs Improve Gameplay? (All DLC - Expansion, Game and Stuff Packs)) 

I have a vampire five star celebrity with pristine reputation. She can just go to a sim say hi. And instantly become good friends with the person. Fans and paparazzi are used for easy plasma. It's a lot of fun and gives me a lot of good laughs.

The restaurants in Dine Out. I know the pack is buggy as heck but having other places than Nightclubs,Bars and Lounges to go to is quite nice.

I literally bought Fitness Stuff for the earbuds. However, I think the best feature of that pack is the television workouts. Sims gain fun and fitness at the same time. And they're fun to watch, too. Also! Singing, particularly in the shower, from City Living. The sim gets clean, inspired, and fun at the same time. Karaoke is fun (for me) too. There have been times that I've made my sim sing karaoke for several in game hours because I enjoy the animations so much. Ditto group dances in Get Together.

With the deal option (1 expansion, 1 game pack, 1 stuff pack) and the whole smorgasbord of packs there are you can create some combos that really flesh out your gameplay in certain areas: *Overall/Realism:* Seasons, Parenthood, Laundry Day Stuff *Flex your Virtual Wealth:* Get Famous, Dine Out, Vintage Glamour Stuff *Netflix & Chill:* Island Living, Spa Day, Movie Hangout Stuff *Hipster **-Hell-** Wet Dream:* City Living, Dine Out, Laundry Day Stuff *Livin in the 50s:* Get Famous, Parenthood, Bowling Night Stuff *Modern Living:* Get Together, Spa Day, Moschino Stuff *Get Outside:* Seasons, Outdoor Retreat, Fitness Stuff *Moar Work:* Get to Work, Dine Out, Moschino Stuff *Supernaturals 1:* Get to Work, Vampires, (some random stuff pack) *Supernaturals 2:* Island Living, Realm of Magic, (another stuff pack) *Cozy Pet Life:* Cats & Dogs, Parenthood, My First Pet Stuff

Carl: we don’t need new careers ... like lawyers *Me, a lawyer: but my simself!*

If Carl thinks his flirty married people club is weird... h-has he heard of Wicked Whims?

The Sims will be hitting the 20th year anniversary for the franchise next month so hopefully there will be a nice sale/celebration where you can get some of these on the cheap!

City Living is actually my favorite DLC so far. I’ve also got Seasons, Dine Out, Get Famous, and University, but it’s still the one that I use the most. I like having the big open worlds and San Myushino is pretty much exactly what I want, with those big courtyard spaces with stuff always going on. I’m naturally a builder and I love designing for those cramped apartments. And City Living came with some of my favorite items (I use the rugs and paintings that came with it EVERYWHERE. And that’s to say nothing about the murals). In terms of game play, I like popping into the festivals, and I’ve got a sim I’m trying to turn into a celebrity through protests.

A failing of EA is the lack of ability to creatively give Sims personality. They’re basically the same person with different inclinations. I love the values system in parenthood but I think they could go further with it. There needs to be a personality trait bar alongside an Interests bar, Flaws bar and perhaps a biology bar. All things that will affect behaviour, choices and natural inclinations. Let’s see. Personality: Family Oriented, Confident, Active Interests: (things they like doing obviously) exercising, hanging out with friends, playing football. Flaws: (things that make them unattractive to everyday sims) can be overconfident, quick to anger, lacks empathy. Biology: (things that affect their inherent abilities caused by natural mutations are chance, sometimes they can randomly develop or be a cause of action) has autism, has high metabolism, allergic to nuts.

Carl the editing and voiceovers just keep getting better and better lol. Also love this video concept..the sims 4 isn't perfect but I love the highlights you've mentioned !!

Best thing from Discover University? The ICYA trunks that have separate inventories. So you can organize those awful personal and household inventories!

9:50 HOW ABOUT RUNNING A DOG POOP SHOP? I got gtw recently, and since I also have c&d, I made a dog poop shop... Sims bought my $200 dog poop ;-;

I love the teapot because the different teas have mood effects as well. It's an easy way to send sims to Uni focused.

I actually liked the military career from Strangerville. I started it with a Sims family outside of Strangerville and collecting metal's, being able to work from home after a certain rank was nice, which I guess wouldn't be possible without the work from home perk offered on careers from City Living so yeah those are my unique picks. I also like freelancer offered in a free update. Just something about spicing up careers that isn't another wormhole job is refreshing to me.

Vampires are OP at University, if you take the no hygiene, fun or social decay perks and have sun immunity. You can also work on homework/projects all night, don't have to worry about food, and can feed off your roommates.

Scientist is my favorite career. Seasons holidays are annoying after the first play through for me because you have to stop everything to complete them or risk bad moodlets.

I wish flower arranging and archaeology were available in clubs!! Also upgrading items - repairing is in there but not upgrading.

I only bought the Vampires Game Pack. I love the ability to have my sims hibernate, that way I can play one sim in a large family and have control over everything they do.

It's nice to see Spa Day get a mention. I loved that pack from the start. Stressed from work, take a soak or meditate it away. It's awesome! Thanks for the list, good work.

I LOVE the survivalist trait. it's a must have for all my sims. any sims that have that can carry a tent/cot/inflatable bed, and a shower in a tarp, and they can get a happiness boost anywhere. not only that but sleeping in camping gear will never get them a sore back, and they regain energy faster than an energy 10 bed regardless of the gear. (and that is amazingly helpful) they might sleep 3 hours or less and replenish all energy. and if you have island living and have it in conjunction with the "beach life" it's a pretty much happy experience for your sim for the rest of his vampire life... err I mean normal life... yeah

I like to put the incense from Spa Day on the fireplace which has been upgraded with fireguard. A good fireplace can get you to nicely decorated (Happy +2). If it's cold you can light the fire for another (+1 Happy). If you have Seasons it's also a good place to put the Menorah and Kinara. Having incense lit also improves Yoga, Soaks, and Massages. If you have Get Together you can add Spa Activities to a Fitness club and add a massage table and some Yoga Mats to the Gym as the club members gain more Wellness skill they can give better massages for free and the massages give social need and relationship. I love the punch bowl that came with Luxury Party stuff. The foods like the chocolate strawberries are great for spas and don't spoil. They're useful for social events and any holiday with party spirit or drinking tradition. They're also great for VIP rooms in clubs for when the bartender is off duty. You can also put them into University dorms if you edit the dorm before you move in or throw one in both of the universities commons. If you have parenthood you can make these even better by getting a strawberry/cheese bread thing and canceling eating it then packing them into sack lunches. They won't spoil and you can carry them around in your inventory. Pure perfection ice cream from Cool Kitchen Stuff is great for getting roommates, dorm mates, or party guests to clean your house and repair anything broken. I definitely don't recommend getting the Cool Kitchen pack just for this but if you already have it it's good to keep in mind. The bee box from Seasons is also useful for getting social by bonding with the bees even without a garden you can still harvest/sell the honey or use the bees to fetch collectibles. The Holidays from Seasons are great you only need to do one tradition to prevent the sad moodlet. I add watch Romantic TV and Drinking (Steamy Ginseng Tea to flirt) to the romance holidays so single people have an out. If you're too lazy to even do that much just buy the decoration box and set decorate as a tradition put up decorations boom you're done. Clothing optional is one of the best lot traits for a gym. It gives you an energized buff for undressing and skinny dipping which makes getting to very energized easier. If you have Island Living seashells are a good easy source of a portable +1 Inspired aura item. The Herbalism brews from Outdoor Retreat are useful in Jungle Adventure. The bug repellent especially. Tents from Outdoor Retreat can be used when your neighbors in apartments are being too noisy to sleep. They're also useful for marking which building your classes are in for Discover University by leaving a tent outside it. Tents also save you a trip back through the Jungle in Jungle Adventures when exploring Temples. Restaurants from Dine Out are great for dates/building friendships, any daily task for a job involving socials, and for doing homework in University. Drinks that should be on every menu are Snagglefluster (Gain Skills Insanely Fast) and Space Energy drink (Shot that raises your energy a lot). They're also great for learning recipes. Don't put restaurants in any district of San MyShuno where festivals occur they break the restaurant. In my experience restaurants work best when you have no more than 2 tables per waiter/chef station. Keep all tables nearby the chef station. (The less distance they have to walk with your food the lower the odds of dropping it). Do not add anything that is not required. All tables should be able to seat eight sims. Put the waiter stations near the bathroom/s the less distance the staff have to walk to use the facilities the less time they waste. If you have Discover University bikes can be nice. Britechester does very well navigated by bike. If you choose to go Foxbury I recommend using jog here instead to save yourself an infinite number of headaches and missed classes. Honestly you're better off living off campus for getting to classes on time. The chests from Discover University are a godsend. Being able to sort all my crap out of my inventory is the absolute best. I also really love the soccer ball if you're playing a fit sim it's a great way to fill fun, social, and gain fitness to kick the soccer ball with someone. I like to use the research machine to gain Photography skill instead of taking bazillions of pictures/screenshots which I have to sell/delete also two skills in one!

Nobodys mentioned Trees of Emotion. Best if you have one grafted with every type of emotion berry.

You really have the best sims content! Hope you’re having a good day

I really love this kind of videos, it's really helpful! Thanks lgr

This video reminds me of when I had the cracked, full game, with all the expansions and game bits. Then EA gave away the base game for free, so I switched to a legit game, and I'm slowly buying back my collection (never full-price, tho, it's daylight robbery). It was a genius move by EA, actually, to catch some pirates. But man, it's painful sometimes playing with the game now, remembering all the features I'm now missing, especially the occults :( I got my aliens back, but I miss my vampire playboy :( On the plus side, I get to know each pack better, and use the new features better, so now I'm actually doing some clubbing. Not too bitter a pill to swallow until I buy my next pack.

I'm so glad you pointed out how useful the club system is. I use it all the time. Right now I've combining it with the roommate system to create a reliable supply of in-house and free-delivery plasma for vampire household. The roomies do cooking and even some of the chores; the vamps take turns feeding on the roomies; and the roomies even bring guests over that the vampires can feed on.

Thanks AGAIN Carl!! You're giving me ideas!!

I've followed ur guides since sims 3, u always put so much detail and effort in. Thank u! Love ur content.

Last time I played the game, I played a Sim in the Style Influencer career and she would take photos of and with other sims. BAM! Instantly good friends after 10 photos with a single sim. Has anyone else encountered this?

Features I use the most frequent actually include the bee box. Most of my sims have to garden and I recently played a whole black widow challenge just to have a good reason to try out the death by death flower scented flower arrangement 🤣 and the bees helped with the garden beautifully and also gave a good reason to make arrangements all the time until my black widow unlocked the special scent of the death flower. My most used item from outdoor retreat is the tent, also super useful for challenges like ragsbto riches and baby challenges (mobile woohoo spot AND toddler/kids "beds" in one!)

Very nice vid. And i agree fully with many of the features you mention. Especially the Parenthood ones. It took me quite a long time to really love Sims 4. But years later, i'm now very attached to some of my favorite goofballs. I also very much appreciate little immersive things, like how the seasons are different in the different worlds. Very well done.

The editing of this video is on a next level

pretty accurate, though im surprised you didnt include the photography stuff from that one branded pack, the one with the one with the greenscreen. pretty fun picture moment and has alittle bit of an impact since you can persuade townies and such to do animations without needing mods and if i recall also nets you social gains from the same.

I like the inspiration swimming in the ocean gives you in island living it’s a good way to boost creativity

The video we've all been waiting for!

Great video! I love your comedic twist in this one. 🤣

Another great and useful video. Cheers!

We need to come up with a snazzy sign-off for you, Carl!

Hi Carl, are you/ have you been voting on the next Sims pack? How are you swaying so far, what are your thoughts and opinions on our choices?

My list: Seasons (I find it difficult to be stuck on spring 24/7, and family activities like holidays and skating!) Discover University (Probably the best CAS we've received so far, and I like an actual challenge in the game sometimes) Parenthood (While I don't pay enough attention to my sim children to use the Character Values to their fullest advantage, the Build/Buy mode in this is superb and really cute family interactions, especially the more generations you play) My game would not be the same without these three, honestly.

Really surprised to see you put RoM on here after knowing your feelings about that pack haha. Great to see you having more fun with how you edit your videos too!

You’re getting more and more comfortable on camera and it shows- you’re freaking hilarious Carl! Keep up the awesome work! As for my favorite feature, I’d have to say the Vampire & Spellcaster rewards systems for sure. I love being able to differentiate my Sims- a guilty drinker vamp with a heart of gold or a full-on evil a**hole vamp who runs around drinking and turning others willynilly.

I wouldnt be without my Go Outdoors pack, i use the camp fire every home i make, i love to see my sims actualy seeming to be having fun and the campfire seems to provide that mmm except when it spontainiously combusts and they cant put the fire out and the poor puppy ran indoors with his tail on fire and noone noticed so i had to make one of them run in and extinguish him, shouldnt they save the pets like they do the toddlers? :D also i love the guitar that comes with go out doors, i thinnk the guy that did the singing all the campfire songs had a ball doing so, the facial expressions and the joviality in the singing as the sim increases in ability are so funny i find my self singing along hahaha , not realy any skill bonuses to the camp fire and guitar i know but seeing my sims have fun makes me smile :D oh and i do love that with this pack you can truely play off gird :D

I enjoy the combinations you provide. :D

I love the retail system in get to work especially with mods that make it more entertaining

Love these videos, thanks!

I find as long as you place the incense burner on the floor, instead of on something else, you're fairly safe from fires.

Rrrawwr by Mortimer Goth was hilarious

The club skill boosts are pretty good, with the savant perk and great acoustics lot trait your skill with any instrument of your choice can go up so quickly you'll go from 1 to 10 in a day, also the homework boost works with University homework and costs 100 points so I usually get it immediately and have my roommates as club mates with a club gathering constantly going

I came up with an interesting idea: you know your play through with with Kobe? The opposite of that. Try to make a sim that's the worst possible! Why not have the mom adopt another kid?

University also has the best CAS hands down

I'm a recent subscriber, and I just wanted to say, I love your voice and your videos! 😁 You sound so friendly and fun to listen to. I don't mean to insult or patronize you when I say this, but you sound like a chipper young person giving a speech about something you're passionate about.

The other great thing about cloud gazing and star gazing is that if you do it with a friend, your social, fun, and friendship bar shoot way up!!

Recently added a bundle that added Seasons, Magic, and Machinima. Overall Seasons had added so much extented gameplay to previous packs. Such as scouting and creating fun holidays. Magic also added a great family value activity for teen thru elders, which is better than Vampires where teen vamps could only duel other vamp teens. Hopefully they fix that issue some day. Machinima also upgraded phography which is a good thing. Overall love your list here, but you missed including cooking and fishing, that also have evolved greatly, much like gardening. Cooking is quite expansive, since includes cooking, gourmet cooking, baking, and have grown so much with each pack added. Good idea for your next video. Spice festivals, Saladoradian meals, restaurant meals, plus more like zombie cakes, Scout cookies, walleye surprise, and much more, such as owning a bakery.👌 Also the voodo doll is an honerable mention item for calling sims to your house after 11PM, and can manipulate other sim's mood, backfire, be baked into cookies, or tossed in a bonfire. ;) Only pro or con on your list is being a doctor, your neighborhoods have ill children sneezing on everyone is town. But agree the career is greatly rewarding.

if it's just inspiration you're after, you need only cloud gaze until the buff is enabled, then stop, it still lasts that same amount of time...loving your gameplay

One day I wish I could have all the packs and dlc

Thank you, Carl, for another thoughtful review. I personally can't imagine playing this game without the Get to Work EP - like you, I'm a big fan of the Scientist career and all the zaniness that it provides. (Now if only the devs would fix the post-Seasons bug that's been preventing plants on the lab lot from growing properly...) I'm also weird and like what aliens bring to the game. True, they aren't too different from Joe Average Sim, but they have enough little perks and quirks to make them interesting to me.

My favorite Pack Item is the Wind Chimes from Backyard Stuff.

Good video i was thinking of buying one, rn i’m going with seasons!! Btw Your voice sounds like tyler the creator.

Roommates is a great feature from University. They pay rent, I don't control them (autonomous) and they are not part of household, they have hidden traits, they open a lot of RPG possibilities.

This is the video I have been needing for forever.

This is going to be a complex one but here goes: The vending machine from get to work or maybe it is called a cooler or whatever, that thing is one of the best items. Just have a business owner put one on their lot and you can put a ton of stuff into it. Play another sim go to it and you can buy an infinite amount of whatever was put into it. Potion of plentiful needs for non-spell casters at the push of a button? Snaggle fluster whenever you need it? Check. All can be put into a vending machine (cooler) and sometimes it sells the things for free. I know snaggle fluster is free. Now how do I get snaggle fluster you might ask? Well either you can have a sim make it and give it to your business sim or you can steal it. Using the magic power you can order one at a restaurant if you have that pack and use the magic spell to steal it into your inventory and from there it’ll be considered yours and can be placed into the cooler. In fact if you have the stealing spell you can use it to grab a lot of things such as the fixer needs serum from a scientist sim and make it yours. No this can’t go into the cooler, but if it was created by someone it can be sold via the retail feature. Or cloned using the cloning machine. In fact the cloning machine is insanely powerful. It being able to clone potions, drinks, and serums. So yeah those are my particular features I love.

off topic, your house builds are awesome

I saw your email, and i am late. Thank YOU! because your insight is good and today you made me smile again. And i didnt get Realm of Magic because of your review, but now i am thinking about it. EA should pay you some money, i am sure i am not the only one who LISTEN to you :) you sold them another pack today.

2:00 I love how the ear examination light shines right through the kid's head. There's nothing in there.

Such a good video! 😊

Loading up the sims 4 to try some new stuff thanks to this video😊🤭

cloud gazing is probably the only feature of outdoor living that i occasionally use. i remember when outdoor living came out and i mostly lost interest in the game

I have vampires, get famous and tiny living. I am in love with these packs! Tiny living the items are amazing!

Jungle Adventures is a pretty good pack. You can get from rags to riches pretty quickly being an archeologist/ treasure hunter. You can make bank on treasures found!

Fun Fact: The teleportation in wellness skill lets you teleport anywhere unlike the teleportation in spell casting winch requires your sims hands to be free and in vampire powers which allow you to carry items and toddlers with you.

Lawyers are like health insurance, you hope you won't need them but when you do you're glad you have them.

Wonderful video

Liked before the video even started because I knew it’d be good

Hagrid just broke me 😂

I have every pack but a few stuff packs and the realm of magic. My favorite one is definitely Get Famous. My least favorite is Vampires. I rarely ever use it, or the items from it.

Anyone else looking for something similar to "Into the Future" and having your own car or motorcycle to get to work?

If you make a servo with the dance machine trait, it'll eventually power-down in a nightclub, on the dancefloor. So much for my skynet fantasy....

I like how the Realm of Magic Game Pack basically makes me a god without having to cover my sim in oil and light them on fire so that they can fly.

The part about celebrities I hate is the paparazzi

What? No ball pit?

I love the vegetarian trait just as a realism thing even though vego Sims won't always make vego options when doing it autonomously

My favourite packs in game are probably cats n dogs, university, city living, laundry day, and seasons

I'm definitely interested in getting discover university after seeing some of the stuff in it, I kinda wish I'd gotten it the other day though because the dlc was on sale but it's not now

I’m aiming for Outdoor Retreat, Spa Day and maybe University when they’re on sale.

I pretty much agree with your ranking

Seasons is a MUST have. It single handlely beats every other DLC by a landslide IMO

The carreers from City Living, I really like them I dont care much about these emotional buffs because of how unbalanced they are, and I use a mod called Meaningfull Stories that makes emotions way harder to control. So I avoid these objects so I have to deal with emotions in a more natural way.

But why don't you want free earbud Carl? 🤣

my butler died because it read a book 24/7, got so hungry she died, I couldn't believe how stupid it was

I NEVER KNEW BEES DID THAT

Personally I love camping in the Sims and having my sims paint Granite falls, reasontly I've been wanting to go camping but because of Coronavirus I'm at home playing the Sims and I am glad I can fill that void in my heart

Thank you!

I would have really liked it if they integrated the Holidays with other packs, like how they did with Clubs. Like traditions involving pets if you have C&D, or traditions involving living in an island if you have Island Living. One of the reasons why TS4 lacks gameplay is because unlike the other Sims version, TS4 packs are stand alones. The packs barely have relevance to other packs.

What is the size of the sims 4 if you have all the expansions packs? Building my own computer for the first time and need to know how much space I need just for sims alone. Plz and thank you

4:52 I'm still fairly new to the Sims 4... how do you get the camera to do this along with simply following your sim around without having to drag the screen yourself?

Please Carl... please upload the vampire from 8:24 to the gallery I've legitimately been trying to make one that looks like him but haven't been able to get it right! 😭😭

Get together to this day is one of my fav, i play without it once and really made my gameplay less enjoyable. The clubs system is what i use the most

I’ve been treating them like Pokémon. Gotta catch em all.

What is the background music? sounds amazing.