I cannot choose a single one that shines brighter than the other but I always thought Pets was meh. I find small pets adorable in real life but I bolt for the door whenever a dog, cute or otherwise approaches me. In the game, I think puppies and kittens are cute but really, if they could act more like the birds and fish I'd be much better off. Besides I've never played without the pet control cheat on. Or the cancel one.

AL is essential. Because apartments are nice. I love cars though (so nightlife is a must) and not many apt. designs allow them. I don't care much about witches though. I liked them better in Making Magic.

I have every sp/ep (and castaways...I am weak!) except that stupid holiday thing and I forget what came with which (I had been wondering about the paintings frames for a while actually). However, I don't think BV deserves so much bashing. I love going on vacation. I'm not sure why since in the end it never works out too well for me.

I have 4 gb on a 64 bit vista home laptop. It is expendable to 8gb. My game runs fine right now and doesn't lag. Loading time is half and hour but my dl folder is huge and I'm weak. Plus I don't mind much. But with sims 3 coming out soon so I was wondering if upgrading to 8 gb would be a wise investment at all?

You've probably loaded up your game already  but I have almost all of the DC and my game runs fine. Of course if you ever download any fixes from elsewhere (*gasps*) do be careful about hack conflicts. I learned the hard way.