To keep it short: I've played the Sims, Sims 2, 3 and 4 but I still come to the conclusion that 2 was the best (apart from the nostalgia from the first one). The game just feels so... finished!

Am I the only one or are there people with me?

Yes Sims 2 is the best and I also think it has the feel of being a finished game but EA could have taken it much farther with new EP's/SP's.

They could have brought in more Jobs for are Sims to get into.

And there are way to many things that still need to be fixed but they drop the ball on it.

They could sell way more Sims 2 games than they will ever sell of Sims 4 if they would bring it back. Sims 2 can be another cash cow for EA if they would only bring it back.

Yep. Still think this is the best one --- for the style I prefer, anyway.
LOVE the sandbox 'feel' and the fact my little universe stays the same after I'm done playing.
LOVE the beautiful hacks from Pescado and others that have made the game more lifelike and allows one to create their own townies/downtownies.
LOVE the toddler and child interactions--especially the one where an adult comforts a sad child !
LOVE the pets. The 'cat lady' in one of my hoods (she's not the ugly,old stereotype ; but beautiful and flirtatious) enjoys taking care of her 7 cats and counting...
LOVE all of the gorgeous CC that improves the look of the game --esp. the default skins/eyes !
LOVE that this game is on dvd's and NOT a cloud storage/online... do not want to lose my progress like in the Sim City 5.

Probably others can add reasons ? Didn't want this post to get too long....

It is by far, the best of the series, according to me. For everything, really.
Character are well done, animations are fine..and they don't seem like they are about to fall on their face while walking. (poor Sims3 clumsy-walking people..)
Children and toddlers aren't looking at you with evil eyes either.
I think, tastes are quite personal..but I like the "bond" that is being created between my sims2 people and I. The way they look at the player....
For me, The Sims was a starter..to become addicted hehe, I liked it. But I would never come back to it now.

I think everyone on the Sims 2 board agrees on that, otherwise we'd be at the Sims 3 or 4 one right now!

The Sims 2 does feel like the best one for me. I own the Sims 3 too, played it for a while and it was nice, it has its own charm, but nothing like the Sims 2. Coming back from the Sims 3 has made me appreciate all the little things about the Sims 2 even more! I vividly remember how excited I was about the open world and story progression in the Sims 3 (the grass is always greener kind of thing), until I realised that I actually like my Sims to stay the way they are until I play them myself the way I want to. If I have to choose the one thing I like the most about the Sims 2, it's definitely that. You don't play just one family, you play an entire neighbourhood.

I've played TS2 since 2006. Never really stopped, except for some longer breaks here and there (with the game still installed, of course - and often making CC during those breaks). It's modded, stuffed with CC, and for the most part works quite well, except for a few minor bugs one in a while. I've mostly played the same neighborhood since around 2008, and it's still chugging along. I like the playstyle, love how neighborhoods are managed, and the only thing I really miss is neighborhoods and houses looking prettier from lot view. I love that the sims have a proper personality, ambitions, and actual emotions. And I've loved the babies and toddlers since the very start, even back when the little ones only had diapers to choose from. They've got personality already from the start, which is more than can be said about the later games.

I have TS3, but the game gave me so much trouble I've almost given up on it. Bugs with or without CC, troubles with the game CDs, and the look of the sims (particularly babies). I've sort of started to get used to the look of the sims, because I've seen people having pretty games, but I've so far just managed a half-hearted try on this. The game doesn't capture me as much as TS2 does. Plus, just the thought of having to figure out the problems, along with learning how to make CC all over again and collecting CC is just overwhelming at the moment. I've managed to keep the interest for about a week or month at a time, with a few months to as long as a year or so between each session. TS3 started out as a flop in my eyes, but I've gradually come to accept it as something that is to stay. As long as I have the opportunity for 3t2 conversions, I'll let the game stay without complaining too much. Maybe I'll even get to that reinstall I gave up on a while back. I have the strangest feeling my laptop hates the game more than I did at first...

As for TS4, I still haven't gotten it, don't know if I ever will. It looks like EA didn't even make a half-hearted try, even more so than TS3. Don't like the overall look, that they've cut half the ages, nor that they've (again) completely screwed up how neighborhoods should be managed. They were sort of on the right track, because smaller hoods in a bigger hood, but with several controllable houses would have been nice, but EA being EA... you know.

And just to mention TS1, I did play it, but got into it very late. By the time I'd started warming up to it, TS2 was on its way out, so I made the switch and never really looked back.

To sum up, I feel TS2 is the best game of them all. Perhaps because it offered something new in an entirely different package, and most of the expectations were met after the upgrade from TS1. TS3 was a slightly failed try at building on TS2's success, and TS4 has turned out to be quite the flop, even if some people seem to like it. TS2 is simply one of those games you can come back to after a while, and still love. It may not be the perfect game, but out of the choices we have, it's the game that lets you do the most out of it.

Exactly!

I got Ts4..Mostly for the children, they were curious, I was disgusted lol
Played once. Game crashed..0_o . Gave up.
"I have the strangest feeling my laptop hates the game more than I did at first... "
This is exactly what i think my computer feels.

Personally, I think so. I like The Sims 3 alright if it has expansions, but without any EPs that game isn't too special IMO. Maybe its nostalgia, but I really do think that TS2 has more charm to its sims than the two that follow it. Granted - I do miss some features that are in the follow ups, like multitasking from TS4, and CASt from TS3. The Sims 3 seems like the team were trying to take a step in the right direction, but they gave up halfway through... The Sims 4 just feels lazy to me.

Personally I am happy that they stopped updating TS2. It means it can be modded endlessly without having to worry about future updates breaking everything.

Yes there are some bugs I wish they had fixed but it's extremely playable.

Some weeks ago I would agree with you about Sims 2 be the best, however I've played Sims 3 for some weeks ago and it's not crashing anymore. Actually it is working very fine in my PC and now I finally can see how charming TS3 is. Man, The Sims 3 it's as good as The sims 2. I am loving to discover new things every day.

The Sims 3 :lovestruc

Well, you're on the Sims 2 forum, where the curmudgeonly diehards live, so of course we're all going to say that TS2 is the best.

I bought TS3 with all expansions. It, unfortunately, doesn't like my computer much. I can't play very long before it crashes or I get a save error which, actually, is far more frustrating than a crash. I could probably do some fixing with mods and what-have-you, but I'm just not much interested as I'm not extraordinarily fond of TS3's gameplay. For me, it's almost too elaborate, especially with all EPs. Too much to do, and the open world actually bugs me. I bought the game and its EPs primarily because I wanted to try building in it. And then I became ill and that kind of went out the window and I still haven't gotten back to it. I will one of these days, when I go through one of my occasional "I don't wanna do anything with TS2" phases.

I haven't played and have no interest in TS4, so I have no opinion about it.

So...I have to say that TS2 is the best for me. I hesitate to say that it's the best, period, though. Everyone is looking for different things in the game they play, and if TS3 or TS4 is better suited to a given a player, that's all good. For me...Well, I'll stick with TS2 likely until I die, if only because it'll take me until then to recolor all the Maxis stuff to my satisfaction.

Definitely the best!

I love Sims 3 too. However, after 4 years playing sims 3 I went back to sims 2 and I realized how much better sims from sims 2 interact with each other. Unless for the open world and story progression (that I realy apreciate) sims 3 is a little bit poor to me...

Of course it is, although if you went over the the sims 3 board and said that you would get a hundred disagrees. Sims 3 with it's all it's beauty and fun elements has soulless blobs of sims and personally I don't want to play the scenery and the fun elements only stay fun for so long. The Sims 4 is some kind of crash collision between sims 1,2 and 3. maybe if EA ever get their act together and do proper babies and toddlers I'd consider buying it. Sims 1 on the other hand was a classic but super hard to play. Sims 2 has the best of everything.
yep, that's us.

*high fives Jo*

You know it, baby.

I totally agree with you. In terms of interaction, sims from sims 2 is better. However, only Sims 3 have the open world and this is one of the things I like more from all sims games.

I agree with you on that, NabucodonosorII about the open world. I too, love this feature. To me though, it is not enough to fully enjoy it more than the sims 2.
This is great that you found your favorite sim game. See, I tried creating for the sims 3..could not get much done, and learning a whole new process did not tempted me at all. I love creating for my own game (yes, I am selfish) This is another huge part for me, to be able to create whatever i want for my game. Sims 2 offers me this. I did not try animations yet, but i could.
And oh my!!! After a whole DAY of playing, (I just exited the game) My sims are SO pwetty! ahah!
I have way too many screenshots...

I think EA lost direction with the Sims series around the same time they were working on TS3. They put so much work into aspects of the game that distracted from what made the series special to begin with. It became a game more about "That one Sim you're playing with RIGHT NOW" rather than "You're playing a whole family of Sims." Sure, you can have a family of Sims in TS4, but at the same time, you're not focused on all of them like you should be. I can't make "Don Sim" plan to check the mail or help with chores when he gets home from work, because in TS4, I can't even line up actions, let alone check his needs or other attributes. Something I always liked about TS2 was that my Sims had to work hard to balance their jobs, hobbies, family commitments, and keep their house from becoming a pigsty.

I never created anything but I think it is very enjoyable! I really can't choose my favorite sims game because all generations have unique great features. About The Sims 2, what I like the most is that I can see a real family in there. Looks like the sims from sims 2 are more real than sims 3, with some kind of emotion, however, the world from sims 3 is more real and funny. Well, I hope Sims 4, after some expansion packs, turns the best sims game.

I played Sims 3 for about 3 months. By then, I was extremely sick of Sims walking or jogging around in the streets, highly upset because my one Sim son's gf just moved away (???????) and even more upset because my one teenager was thrown into jail for NO valid reason - being out on his own when he was WITH HIS PARENTS! I never got past the basegame - and I think I only spent 3 months on Sims 3 because I was a bit lazy to install Sims 2 plus all the ep's plus most of the stuff packs again. Fortunately I have. The point of Sims 2 imo is that you are really not limited by much - you can play the game any way you want to - and it never has to end (unless your hood blows up by just getting too large for your pc to handle). Sims 4 looks all pretty at a distance - but I can't and won't be able to play a game with no story progression. I might not have completed a mighty Sim story yet, but I am trying And I HAVE TO HAVE aliens.

Sims 2 is the game where you go in and you find all of your friends who haven't changed or left. They're still there, welcoming you back to their houses, drama and lives.

Kind of like the song from "Cheers": "where everyone knows your name."

I also love the small things like children who get happy when they get come with good grades, the way a family eats and interacts when sitting at a dinertable, pets who welcome you, cars, everything :D. Even the fact that my teens get zits when they are too stressed! :D

What is story progression? I thought Sims 2 didn't have it from comments I seen on the board, but I've never been sure what it was. I am glad that my Sims don't age automatically when I am not playing them. I take it that they do in other versions of the Sims.

yes the sims 2 is the best game which is why I haven't attempted to play the sims 3 or 4. It seems a bit bias but from just looking at the new sims games I can tell theyre not my cup of tea and from the reviews and gameplay guides, it looks like they have changed everything I love about the sims game that I find in the sims 2; so it looks like the sims 2 will be sticking around forever until EA go back to making a sims game that supersedes the sims 2.

Sims 2? Nope. Can't stand it.

(Checks nose in mirror. Hopes her nose doesn't look like Goopy's.)