Second in the series, first in many players' hearts, The Sims 2 had some fantastic expansions.

The lifespan of an entry in The Sims series used to be much shorter, with The Sims 2 launching only a scant four years after the first. This ambitious successor had a lot to live up to, with The Sims considered a legacy PC game, easily one of the most iconic of our time.

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But The Sims 2 didn’t flinch or skip a beat, launching in September 2004 with a bevy of improvements in the base game alone – like the 360-view camera and taking genetics into account when two Sims had a baby, to name a few. And while the base game itself was great, it wouldn’t really be a Sims game without a couple of add-ons.

Eight expansion packs were released over the course of the game’s five-year run, each bringing with them new ways to spice up our digital dollhouses. Some were new variants of expansions from the first game, while others brought completely new things into the series. We wanted to look back and reminisce about the various expansions that were released for The Sims 2.

The Sims returned once again to offer yet another set of vacation packages to your families with the Bon Voyage expansion pack. This time, we got a woodland area, the return of a beach destination, and an invigorating dip into the cultural contrast of the Far East. Like with the first Sims game’s vacation expansion, each location had different things for your Sims to do in their off time: go swimming and sunbathing, camping and log riding, or for a massage and a dip in a hot spring.

Your Sims could even get bonuses from their vacations, successful or not. Boring trips imparted the “jetlagged” bonus, while enjoyable ones could sometimes send Sims home with a boost to their career or even an extra want. And if you truly didn’t want to come back after a taste of paradise, vacation homes were available for purchase in the auxiliary worlds as well.

Although The Sims 2: Pets didn’t come with a new neighborhood, it did come with several pre-made lots and families to place into existing ones, each one rather pet-centric. Cats and dogs returned to the series again, bringing with them birds and gerbils this time around. Adopt your new family member, if you’d like, or head into the new Create-a-Pet system to make your own, choosing from 30 different cats and over 70 breeds of dogs.

Your fluffy friends could also earn their keep in The Sims 2, with pets able to begin careers that pay out Simoleons and rewards just like your actual Sims' jobs. This expansion also introduced werewolves, too, a supernatural spectacular that’s stuck with the series ever since.

The final expansion released for The Sims 2, the new world of Belladonna Cove took huge and very obvious inspiration from real-world New York City. Find a few NPC roomies and move into a new place downtown to start your life in the big city.

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The world came with things like libraries, coffee shops, parks, grocery stores, and even a trailer park, but the main draw was, obviously, urban apartment living. The expansion also introduced magic into The Sims 2, in addition to other things the second installment in the series had been missing – playground furniture, a vibrating bed, and even more ridiculous things like helicopters and butlers.

Another pack meant to get your Sims out of their house, Nightlife introduced a Downtown area specifically designed with partying in mind. Home to new places like shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and residential lots, your Sims now had a whole new way to experience fun. And if the party scene wasn’t for them, Nightlife also introduced other central features, like vampires and vehicles, too.

This was also where we saw the infamous Grilled Cheese Aspiration introduced. If your Sim tried to change their original aspiration with help from the ReNuYu SensoOrb but was unsuccessful, this gooey sandwich would become the only thing they wanted to eat, talk about, or even think about.

Weather-related packs have usually been the ones to change Sims games the most, arguably, and The Sims 2: Seasons was very much like that. Before the pack, every day was sunshine in your neighborhood, but Seasons introduced a weather system, allowing for rain, hail, lightning, and snow as well, along with internal and external temperature checks, for your Sims and the world around them.

Riverblossom Hills was the new neighborhood from this pack, and it was where your Sims could do all sorts of outdoor, weather-related activities: jumping in puddles, raking leaves, making snowmen, or even having heat strokes and getting sunburns. Additionally, PlantSims were introduced in this pack - they were green, able to reproduce asexually, and made for much more effective gardeners than human Sims.

The entrepreneurial spirit was brought to The Sims 2 with the Open for Business expansion pack, introducing the world of Bluewater Village as the new place to go for all your shopping needs – buying, of course, but also selling. Not only were you able to go shopping at the new slew of stores, you were also able to own and operate said stores, too.

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You’ll find a toyshop, florist, baker, and a rich tycoon who owns both a nightclub and an electronics store by default, but your Sim is able to enter the fray by opening a shop of their own, too. Choose your inventory, hire and fire staff, and make sales to earn a living in this new career. If your Sim is technologically inclined, have them earn the robot badge – it’ll allow them to make their very own Servo, the robot from the first game who so lovingly cleaned our houses in place of maids or butlers.

Maxis understood that everyone has different interests, and sought to introduce several new options for all three in the FreeTime expansion pack. Your Sims were now able to pursue a whopping ten new passions: fitness, cooking, music and dance, sports, nature, science, films and literature, gaming, tinkering, and arts and crafts. And if that wasn’t enough, you could now switch jobs to things like dancing, entertainment, intelligence, architecture, or even oceanography.

Additionally, each hobby had a handful of ways in which it could be pursued. Cooking enthusiasts, for example, could watch food-centric TV shows to contribute to their hobby, unlock new recipes, enter food contests, and even use a nectar-making table. Scientifically-inclined Sims were able to find aliens, sometimes being abducted by them, and, if they were male, occasionally coming back pregnant with an alien bundle of joy.

Ah, college – the first time young adults are free of their parents (and, fun fact, the first time Young Adults were in the Sims at all). There were three schools your Sims could attend if you bought The Sims 2: University, with 11 majors requiring the advancement of related skills to graduate and obtain one of four graduate-only careers. You typically moved into a dormitory and lived side-by-side with other students, pulling pranks, having pillow fights, and forming study groups to socialize while you learn. There were also scholarships that’d let you move into a private residence, or Greek houses, if frat life was more your thing.

Classmates could bond by spending time at a bubble machine, hitting up the juice keg together, or just playing Kicky Bag in the quad. This first expansion for The Sims 2 made the biggest splash, and University is, almost two decades later, still widely considered the best expansion pack for The Sims 2. It introduced a host of things that remained central to the series' gameplay, like an influence system, the ability to play instruments, and lifetime wants.

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A recent Creative Writing grad with three fiction novels under her belt, you'll usually find Gabrielle at her laptop. When she's not, she's a big fan of scratch baking, bass guitar, RPGs, and awful jokes.