The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff

great game, (2008-12-20)
it has really cool items and love the garden stuff. Beware of amazon shipping. I payed for UPS shipping and then it came through USPS and took almost 2 weeks. Plus the shipping charges are super bloated.

Quite good! (2008-12-02)
I've tried to build large homes for my Sims, complete with fancy gardens. I always failed. I was never able to make the grand staircases or have really nice gardens, but now, thanks to this new stuff pack, I can do just that!

I have all the stuff packs and expansions and I'll say this is one of the better ones. You get plenty of new elements, including the grand staircases and gardening items, plus lots of architechal gew-gaws, like stone lions and faries and the like.

Also you get three new themes; Morocan, Second Empire and Art Deco. Ever wanted to copy a painted lady house? Now you can! Want to recreate a Morocon pleasure palace? You'll have everything but the eunuchs!

The gardening stuff isn't quite what I'd wanted, but otherwise the set is grand and enjoyable! Worth every penny!

a must have SP (2008-11-27)
I absolutely love this SP. I have Bon Voyage too so its super fun to build beachside mansions as homes and as vacation homes. Almost everything in this pack is related to building and decorating, although there are some new hairstyles included...5 for women and 3 for men. The new big bay windows are great, I love the fact that up to three potted or vased flowers can be set on their window sill. And I absolutely *love* the new fences with flowers! They really add to the exterior atmosphere. This SP mixed with Glamour Life and Kitchens & Baths SP's can really make some gorgeous homes for your Sims, inside and out.

This SP alone requires an entire Gig of hard drive space according to the package system requirements, as well as stating the need for 1 Gig or more of RAM. Something everyone thinking about getting this needs to know. Its definitely a memory hog if many of its items are used on a Sims lot. Thankfully I recently upgraded my laptop RAM to 2 Gigs so I'm not having any problems building to my hearts content, adding and playing Sims on whatever lot I built.

And yes, you have to use it to run the game once its installed. Its to keep people from sharing which cuts into Maxis profits. Their employees have families to feed too and they can't do that if everybody shares their products. If you want it, you have to buy it.

Overall, I'm thrilled with this too cool SP that'll make time go by faster until Sims 3 debuts ;^)

Be Careful... (2008-11-27)
Previously, if you bought a stuff pack, you could still play your Sims game from your most recent expansion pack disc. Not so with M&GS. It's actually considered a 'mini-expansion', and you must play from the M&GS disc, no matter what your most recent EP is. It would have been nice to know this before I purchased just one copy for myself and my roommate to share - now I get to pay for a second copy, plus shipping. Somehow I'm not surprised that EAxis didn't publicize this *at all*.

The best of the Sims 2 stuff packs (2008-11-26)
I still believe the stuff packs are overpriced for the amount of stuff they offer. $12-15 would probably be a fairer price. So if you happen to find a sale, definitely go for it.

Mansion & Gardens Stuff is by far the best stuff pack EA has offered. The three decorating styles; Second Empire, Moroccan, & Art Deco, are lovely. The flowers are shrubs are beautiful, a welcome addition to landscaping. I like how the windmill & solar panels will lower the sim's bills. The ceiling fans are a decorative object, but they do actually move so it's a nice realistic touch. I haven't noticed that they affect the temperature of the sims so they are probably merely decorative.

I love the Mansard roof pieces. It makes it so much easier to have attic space that my sims can live in without being affected by the weather. I've had issues in the past of them freezing or getting heat stroke if I had bedrooms in the attic with certain types of roofs.

Knock on wood, I haven't noticed any major glitches with Mansions & Gardens. What a relief. The grand staircases are very nice, but they sure do take up a lot of space. Your sims will autonomously slide down the banister. Usually we do not get any new interactions with stuff packs, so this was a nice surprise. Our sims can smell the flowers too.

The only thing I didn't care for is that some of the new siding is too dark and there's only a few selections. I'm not really fond of the screaming bright yellow. I wish they would have added some of the previous siding colors we've had with the new corner trim. EA could have made this a real expansion pack with more items and options and I would have been over the moon.

I'd consider this stuff pack a must for Sims 2 players.